The economic control services of the Tunisian Ministry of Trade said that within a week of seizing thousands of tons of subsidized foodstuffs, cereals, eggs, vegetable oil and flour in random monopoly stores, these goods were completely lost in stores and markets.
consecutive complaints
The head of the Consumer Defense Organization, Ammar Dayah, said in statements to “Sky News Arabia” that the organization had received consumer complaints through the various branches of the organization in the governorates showing the sudden and complete loss of basic foodstuffs, which confirmed the suspicions of monopoly that the organization verified after communicating with the Ministry Commerce.
Dayah added that the ministry informed her of the quantities of supplies that had not changed, and that they were sufficient to ensure the needs of citizens, but that they did not reach the marketplaces due to monopoly and speculation.
July 25 decisions
For his part, Lutfi Al-Riyahi, head of the Consumer Guidance Organization, considered in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that the monopolists’ system that ended with the July 25 decisions announced by President Saeed is trying today to create a war in the economic arena through speculation, igniting prices and monopolizing foodstuffs, taking advantage of the weakness of the legal framework. Who regulates the food trade.
According to Al-Riyahi, some legal loopholes within the framework of price liberalization allow major commercial spaces to control and inflate the prices of materials, and also allow the use of subsidized materials destined for citizen consumption in the industrial sector, which requires more precise laws regarding profit margins at all stages of production and control of distribution routes.
Riahi added that “the crisis of losing flour, oil and other foodstuffs from the markets was caused by speculation and came against the backdrop of political maneuvers in the country, where corrupt businessmen who refused accountability colluded with the previous political system in order to fight the reform path and used the weapon of control to supply the markets with foodstuffs.” They are trying to create a social crisis and provoke citizens’ protests.”
“Not a coincidence”
At the beginning of the week, President Kais Saied called during a meeting with Minister of Finance Siham Boughediri Namsieh and Minister of Trade and Export Development Fadela Ben Hamza, for the need to develop a new text on distribution channels in the face of monopoly and speculation.
He considered that what is happening in the loss of foodstuffs in the markets is not a coincidence, but rather it is a premeditation and arrangement by those who are shaken by nostalgia before July 25, 2021.
