Martinique: agreement signed to reduce food prices by 20%

Prices finally cheaper? The State announced that it had signed an agreement especially with distributors to reduce food prices by “20% on average” in Martinique, an island in the Antilles which has been going on for more than a month.

This agreement, reached on Wednesday evening in Fort-de-France at the end of a seventh round of negotiations and announced by the prefect of Martinique Jean-Christophe Bouvier, was however not signed by the Collective Rassemblement for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Populations Resources (RPPRAC), at the origin of the mobilization since September 1st, which slammed the door and invited us to “continue the movement”.

VideoRodrigue Petitot, the leader of the competition

The “protocol on objectives and means to combat the high cost of living”, in this territory where food prices are currently 40% more expensive than in France, was therefore signed between the local prefecture, the community territory of Martinique, parliamentarians, distributors (hypermarkets and supermarkets in particular), wholesalers, the Grand Maritime Port, the CMA-CGM transporter, representatives of the economic world and the Price, Margin and Revenue Observatory.

Most consumed food products

“The collective efforts envisaged by the protocol will allow hypermarkets to reduce the sales prices currently charged on a list of 54 product families corresponding to the most consumed food products in Martinique by an average of 20%”, writes the prefect of Martinique in a press release.

“The lasting decline in food prices will result in particular, among other things, from the entry into force of five major measures aimed at structurally reducing the purchase and transport costs of the 6,000 imported food products (…), as well as from a firm commitment and mandatory for major distributors to significantly reduce their margins on the sale of these products,” he added.

“There is an urgency to sign for the economy of Martinique,” ​​said prefect Jean-Christophe Bouvier on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the seventh round table, who also called for an “easing of violence,” while the authorities extended Monday until October Night curfew on the island at 9pm. Since the beginning of September the island has been the scene of a social mobilization that degenerates at regular intervals into urban violence.