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The price for a pound of rice officially dropped 11 cents today which is why the price control police were on patrol in Belize City. Personnel were checking prices in stores with specific emphasis on rice for which as of today – you should be paying $1.20 per pound and not the previous price of $1.31 per pound. Technical assistant at the Bureau of Standards Luis Cho says there were more than a few stores who had not reduced their prices. The news tonight is that they have been given a grace period to adjust prices. Cho explained.

Luis Cho, Technical Assistant - Bureau of Standards
“The prices for rice is at $1.20, that is the controlled price. Once the stores are outside of that then they are basically violating the Supplies Control Act.”

Keith Swift,
Did you enter any stores today in which the price haven’t gone down as yet?

Luis Cho,
“Yes we have met a few a stores.”

Keith Swift,
And what did you do?

Luis Cho,
“What we did is we have warned them to bring the price down to $1.20 but their issue is that it is old stock, a stock that they had previous to the price increase. So we are looking basically because of the changes just recently, I am looking at a week. So by next week we should see some changes. If not then we will have to take drastic action against them.”

Keith Swift,
What should a consumer do?

Luis Cho,
“Consumers need to shop basically. What happens is that every store you go, because of the size of the store or the location of the store you will find that the prices will vary and that is because either they have old stock or they have a new stock but we don’t know so we check receipts to ensure that they actually purchased this rice or whatever commodity it is at whatever date they said they purchased it and so we need to see that and once they say they can prove it to us then basically we can overlook it, just for a week. That is the most we can give them.”

The wholesale price of milled rice also decreased from $126 to $112. We should that the controlled price is actually $1.21 in Dangriga and $1.22 in Punta Gorda, San Pedro, and Caye Caulker. If you are paying more – you can call the consumer protection hotline at 0-800-2TELLUS which is 0-800-283-5587.