The prices of cooking oil surged on account of an increase in production cost, freight and labor costs for imported products, Al-Watan reported Friday quoting an economic expert, some officials of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and some concerned citizens. For local products, they said the price hike were due to “greed of some traders”, lack of competitors for the local product and collusion among traders. Survey found out that prices have gone up by 30 percent in some brands, while prices of other brands that were considered as cheap - like Dalal, Nakheel, Al-Faras and Nakhlatain - have jumped from SR6-SR7 to over SR12, with a 90 percent price hike, the report said. The price of a 1.8 liter Mazola oil rose from SR15 to SR22.50, Afia to SR19.50, Al-Arabi to SR15.50 and Abu Zahra to SR18.95. Meanwhile supermarket owners attributed the hikes to cooking oil manufacturers themselves. They confirmed that price hikes came in phases for some brands of cooking oil, with the rise reaching 80 percent. They pointed out that the price of a 1.8 liter bottle of oil that used to be SR6 a year ago, has risen to SR14.50, exceeding 100 percent. Zuhair Noori, a member of the Commercial Committee in Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and President of Al-Noori Group for Foodstuffs, said the average price hike on cooking oils reached 30 percent during the past months due to lack of rainfall in Greece, hence, affecting olive harvests. The absence of strict price supervision also led to sudden rise in prices. Meanwhile, Maher Jamal, Chairman of the Commercial Committee in MCCI, said the committee is not concerned with these price hikes - it is concerned with removing the obstacles facing traders. However, this does not mean that it helps increasing the prices. He said the authority concerned with monitoring prices is the Consumer Protection Association and the Deputy Ministry of Commerce for Consumer Affairs. Yet the citizens blamed the supervisory authorities in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry fully for these hikes, which they said were unjustified and reflect the state of chaos the local markets are in, under absence the of supervision and protection. A concerned citizen nonetheless said “there is nothing considered a surprise any more. Everything has become normal and expected, especially concerning prices and their rise from time to time.” He said the absence of protection and weak supervision have led to price tampering by some traders. __
