By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s principal yesterday gave struggling consumers some relief by revealing there will be no “sudden” rise in egg prices as the projected 60 percent increase will instead be phased-in between now and Christmas.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business the US Egg Marketing Board has decided to increase prices gradually by 10-15 cents per week rather than at once, thus allowing Bahamian shoppers time to gradually adjust their spending and budgets for what is ultimately still expected to be a $2 per carton increase.

Disclosing that the 13-store supermarket chain still has sufficient stock to run its present $3.29 ‘special’ for dozen-strong egg cartons until next Wednesday at least, he said his disclosure of the impending price increase had caused “a run” on the product with 1,000 cases sold over a 72-hour period since Tuesday.

“The good news is that the US Egg Marketing Board have decided that with US inflation being such, and September being a better month in the economy, they’re not going to take the price up suddenly,” Mr Roberts told this newspaper. “They will take it up gradually by 10-15 cents.

“Next week we will be able to sell eggs at $3.39, just 10 cents more, and this will happen weekly I suppose until our supplier takes it up by $1.50 in the US, which means they will sell for about $2 more in The Bahamas. It’s not going to happen all of a sudden; between now and Christmas eggs will go to $4.99.

“That’s going to give our consumers some relief and, of course, they won’t have to be paying those prices immediately. I hope we get up to Christmas before we get up to the full $2 increase per dozen. That should be a big relief to them. They’ll catch the baking season now at a lower price, and it will only go up 10-15 cents a week to Christmas when we will land them at $2 more.”

Mr Roberts had warned earlier this week that Hillandale Farms, Super Value’s US egg supplier, had informed it that cartons containing a dozen eggs will increase by $1.50 due to the loss of 35m chicks as a result of bird flu - a number equivalent to 20 percent of its regular production.

Conceding that the timing was “bad news” for consumers as it coincides with the start of “baking season”, he added that the addition of freight costs and Bahamian import duty will likely take the per carton increase to $2 - pushing the total price to $5 or just over - right at the time when Super Value had been hoping to lower the cost.

However, Mr Roberts yesterday said the supermarket chain has sufficient inventory remaining to maintain its $3.29 egg ‘special’ price promotion through to next week Wednesday. “We have enough eggs left now to continue the special through this week to next Wednesday. I think we have enough to last us this week,” he told this newspaper.

“Between me talking to you last time [Tuesday] and now, we’ve sold 1,000 egg cases. The news of the increase gave us a run on eggs. I saw that some of the stores couldn’t keep the cases full; not because they didn’t have them, but it was difficult for the warehouse to get them to the stores and then for the stores to keep the cases full with such consumer demand. We had a run on them.”

Eggs, as a food staple, are among the price-controlled “breadbasket” items where margins are set by the Government’s Price Control watchdog. Retailers are allowed a fixed mark-up of 10 percent. Mr Roberts earlier this week said that while Hillandale Farms had escaped the first bird flu wave, it had not been so fortunate second time around, which has cost it 35m chicks equivalent to one-fifth of its production.

“They took the thousands of cases in the cooler, tracked the shipping down, and all eggs were confiscated and destroyed,” he added then. “There’s been nothing proven wrong with the eggs but they’re not taking any chances. That’s going to put eggs back in the $5 per dozen range.

“We have them on special now at $3.29, and have about 1,200 cases left. We have to hold the special until Wednesday night (tomorrow) when the advertising expires. If we have any left, we will continue the $3.29 through the week as long as supply lasts. But the next shipment we expect them to go up to the $5 range. This is bad news for the consumer as we’re entering baking season.”

Such concerns have now been eased, with Mr Roberts yesterday saying he had detected recent signs of modest improvement in the economy. “I’m hoping we’re having a pick-up in the economy,” he told this newspaper. “Back to School was slow because people had to pay for uniforms, school fees, shoes and supplies, so they couldn’t spend on food, but the week after there was a good improvement.

“The economy is improving, and is much stronger this year than it was last year, so sales are picking up. I don’t want to give the competition a percentage or a figure. I’m happy with sales. We’re trying hard, trying to put the right price out there, and trying to ease the pain. We’re selling cooking oil at less gross than we had last year because the price was higher than now.”

Mr Roberts, who has been in the US for some weeks, said prices at a Giant Eagle supermarket in Pittsburgh were higher than those for products imported to The Bahamas. “I think overall the retailers and wholesalers are doing a good job for the country,” he added.

“Consumers might not think so, but I can assure them they are based on the prices I saw. We expect consumers to complain about inflation, but Nassau merchants are doing a good job for the consumer.”