The Consumer Protection Association (CPA) has said it will file a petition with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry asking them to control prices of essential goods during the holy month of Ramadan.

“Each year, despite the price index devised by the Ministry of Commerce — which is meant to control prices of essential items such as meat, vegetables and dairy products — traders are still drastically increasing prices ahead of and during Ramadan,” the president of the Consumer Protection Association told Arab News. Nasser Al-Tuwaim added that price hikes should stop and that they would file a petition with the ministry soon asking them to control prices.

Prices of vegetable items such as tomatoes, potatoes and cauliflower have already gone up 50 percent. Tomatoes that were priced at SR 8 to SR 10 a couple of weeks ago have increased to SR 13 to SR 15 in the vegetable market and local supermarkets.

A bag of potatoes that was priced at SR 5 to SR 7 during the same period now costs SR 10 to SR 13, while a carton of cauliflower that was selling for SR 15 to SR 20 a week ago has leapt in price to SR 38 to SR 40.

Al-Tuwaim added that the CPA is also active in working with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in compiling a competitive price study, which includes researching the country of origin of imported foodstuffs and other goods and checking prices against the local retail price to identify which companies and traders are unjustifiably hiking prices.

“We have been studying prices of commodities such as baby milk and how they have been steadily increasing, finding that over the last three to four years there has been a spike in prices by as much as 400 percent,” he said.

Al-Tuwaim said the CPA had proven that most price increases stemmed from nothing more than greed of traders who claim the hikes are due to global economic conditions.

“It is not possible that local prices have risen purely because of global conditions, as most baby milk is imported from European countries and we have noticed that the value of the euro has fallen. This should cause local prices to also fall,” Al-Tuwaim rationalized.

Some officials maintain that price hikes during the holy month are not only the government’s responsibility or traders’ fault, but instead consumer’s loyalty to certain brands that create high grocery bills.

“I feel that instead of complaining or having government bodies monitor prices, consumers should also learn that in order to save money they should abandon the practice of being loyal to specific brands and try other, cheaper priced brands,” Faisal Bataweel, manager of the corporate social responsibility sector at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Arab News in a previous interview.