INDUSTRY, Investment and Commerce Minister Senator Aubyn Hill has warned that agencies in his ministry will be going after businesses found to be engaging in price gouging.

Since the passage of Hurricane Beryl on July 3, Jamaicans have been complaining about higher-than-normal prices for some goods, which Hill said was expected after the hurricane, noting that the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) has been monitoring the situation.

“If businesses aren’t following the rules, the agencies that I have and the authority that we have within the law will be used at full force…and as the CAC goes out, if we find people who are price gouging…we are going to put the full force of the law at you because we don’t want that; we want you to be fair,” he said.

Hill, who was speaking at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet media briefing held at the Chalmers Avenue location of business process outsourcing (BPO) company Itel, explained that price gouging happens “when you have goods that you are hoarding and won’t release until the price goes up or you buy new stuff coming in and you mark it up — because, you used to get 15 or 20 per cent and now you’re getting 45 and 70 per cent”.

He noted that price checking was being done from before the hurricane and is continuing, so there is abundant data from May and June to do comparisons to identify price gougers.

Six days after the passage of the hurricane, Prime Minister Andrew Holness had advised Jamaicans to report any incidence of price gouging.

In a ministerial statement in the House of Representatives on July 9, Holness said the Government was closely monitoring market activities to ensure that unscrupulous individuals do not exploit this disaster for financial gain, noting that citizens should have access to the necessary supplies at fair prices.

“I ask the public to report any instance of price gouging, meaning an increase in price over and above what you were paying for the same product or service before the hurricane,” Holness said, advising that people report to the CAC or directly to the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

Holness said the Government had issued an order, before the arrival of the hurricane, under the Trade Act to prevent price gouging on essential goods. However, in late August, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green had raised concerns about the price gouging of agricultural products in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

Addressing a media briefing at his ministry’s St Andrew office on August 27, Green said traders were allowed access to external markets to ensure the nation has adequate food supply.

“Once we have adequate supply, from our perspective, we know what should be the regular price for a number of our agriculture products. I am concerned that our traders are not passing on savings for our consumers, and I am getting a lot of outrage around prices of things that have come from external markets that seem to be still bearing the same high prices, even though the cost of source for those items are low,” the minister said.

Green said he had brought the matter to Hill who asked the CAC to conduct an investigation.

“What we do not want is people to be taking advantage of the challenging times by unfairly raising their prices. We are providing the access, [so] the consumers, ultimately, must benefit,” Green said.

A St Mary farmer, Simeon Matty, who spoke to the Jamaica Observer last month, said since the passage of Hurricane Beryl he has seen that some farmers, especially those who were not greatly affected by the storm, hike prices unnecessarily — which is a practice he condemns.

“Farmers are the only sector of business people who can raise things as much as they want to 200 or 300 per cent and it just goes through like that, and then now they pressure the Government all the time to take taxpayer money and give them fertiliser,” said Matty.

Matty said that he has seen prices raised twice within 24 hours, and consumers left to hand over their hard-earned money.

“They need to do better, man! They can do a lot better. The vendors dem sometimes, too, exaggerated with the prices so you need to have some sort of Government control to go around and make sure that they not overcharging,” he told the Observer.

Matty is among stakeholders in the sector who have been advocating for the implementation of legislation to prevent price gouging in the agricultural sector.

Green, in response to the call for regulations on prices, said that it is a matter the Government has looked at and continues to explore.

“Clearly, there has to be a balance between ensuring that farmers get a good return on their investment and also ensuring that the consumers will not always have to pay too much. The real solution is trying to get adequate storage so that we can always have adequate supply,” Green told the Observer last month.