The subsidized oil sold at Rs 75 will be on the shelves today.
The edible oil marketed by the State Trading Corporation (STC) is available on supermarket shelves starting today. While waiting for the 500 tons of the precious liquid – from the brand Smatch – do not land in Mauritius, coming from India, the STC bought 1,000 tons on the local market – from Moroil more precisely – to relieve consumers. This edible oil will also be marketed under the same brand and will be sold at a subsidized price of Rs 75. However, yesterday, Rajiv Servansingh, director of the STC, said that each customer will only be entitled to 2 liters. ..
The edible oil purchased locally by the STC is more precisely soybean oil, supplied by the company Moroil, so. Sold at this price, will it be of lower quality? Do they sell us motor oil? No, we assure you. “It is a refined soybean oil and packaged by Moroil, which meets international quality standards. STC launched a call for tenders for 3,000 tonnes of oil, to which Moroil responded. We submitted an offer for only 1,000 tonnes at market price, and it was accepted. The STC will therefore subsidize this oil which will be sold at a lower price on the shelves and will also distribute it.“, told us an official source of Moroil.
Some supermarkets had already received their stock of Smatch yesterday evening, including Dreamprice. If recent increases in the price of basic foodstuffs had raised fears of a shortage in Mauritius and led to restrictions on the purchase of edible oil to avoid panic buying, at Dreamprice, it is specified that the stock is sufficient. “Given the circumstances above, we understand that people will tend to buy more edible oil because of the subsidized selling price. The oil bottles are available on the shelves for consumers to purchase as needed, as we have sufficient stocks“says the management of the Dreamprice supermarket in Saint-Pierre. “This is also the case for all Dreamprice supermarkets“, we specify.
Other businesses should receive the STC’s edible oil stock by the end of the week. “We have placed our orders and should receive them by this weekend. We do not yet know the specific quantity that will be delivered to us. Previously, we have noticed a tendency for customers to give in to panic buying, and we had an artificial shortage for a week. But for now, the situation is healthy and we believe that selling oil at this subsidized price will appease customers.s”, underlines this trader from Moka.
In a supermarket Winner’sit can be seen that the stock of edible oil provided by the company Moroil to STC to be sold at a subsidized price, will not be available until August 15. In the meantime, various brands of edible oil continue to be sold there at the current market price, including the Soybean Oil of Moroit selling at Rs 110 per litre.
If this measure is supposed to appease the population for the moment, some consumers do not share this opinion. “With the recent price increases after the lifting of subsidies on edible oil, the price per liter has increased significantly for certain brands. Although the new prix subsidized seems to be significantly lower than others, Rs 75 for a liter of basic groceries remains expensiveconcludes Noushreen, skeptically.
