FIJIAN Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) chief executive officer Joel Abraham has issued a stern warning against traders who engage in unfair trading practices and corporate greed.
While reiterating FCCC’s commitment to protecting consumer welfare, Mr Abraham emphasised the organisation’s commitment to fostering a competitive and sustainable marketplace for local consumers.
“As we all know, the cost of living continues to be a cause of concern and in line with our regulatory mandate to ensure a competitive, effective, efficient, and sustainable marketplace for all Fijians, our teams have been hard at work, actioning our strategy to address cost of living concerns,” he said.
“This strategy includes working with traders and businesses to ensure there are market-based solutions based on competition and self-compliance in the market while ensuring that consumer welfare is protected and maintained.
“I must state that market regulation does not mean that we will artificially lower prices, instead we are working on a market-based regulatory approach.”
Highlighting some of the work that FCCC has been doing for the different sectors, Mr Abraham said the institution had completed discussions with both the Ministry of Housing and the Housing Authority of Fiji on the possibility of reducing the infrastructure cost of land development to make the land acquisition and housing more affordable for low to medium-income households.
Mr Abraham said a tariff model would be proposed by FCCC, for the water sector. He said this proposal would include a capital development cost for rural water so that Fijians who currently don’t have access to water will have an opportunity to get connected through a marker-based tariff model.
He said FCCC would ensure that customary owners of resources, in this case water, were compensated accordingly and “that their economic rights, especially in terms of resource ownership are taken into account and that they are adequately compensated”.
For the transport sector, a major reform has been experienced in the shipping sector, through the shipping sector review, as inter-island ferrying company Interlink Shipping agreed to reduce fares charged for certain routes.
One-way fare from Suva to Labasa has been reduced from $68 to $65.
FCCC is working with Interlink to further reduce this by another 30 per cent to accommodate locals who’ll be travelling for the festive season.
Rates from Savusavu to Taveuni have seen a major reduction to a flat rate of $10 from the previous fare of $30 for adults, $22 for students and $18 for children.
Suva to Taveuni rates were reduced from $71 to $60 for adults, $53 to $45 for students, and $43 to $35 for children.
Mr Abraham said those rates would be further reduced in the coming months.
Freight charges for vehicles from Savusavu to Taveuni will also reduce from to a return rate of $420 to $300 reflecting a reduction of $120 or 24 per cent.
“I would like to commend Interlink Shipping on their efforts in providing affordable travel costs to their customers and encourage other service providers to take similar measures.
“This is an example of market-based intervention – it wasn’t achieved through price regulation but through collaborative discussion.
He said FCCC had been actively addressing concerns for maritime travel safety and they’re working with local communities, particularly in the maritime islands to understand the challenges they face.
A letter is being put together, by FCCC, for the Minister for Transport and Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF), highlighting concerns raised by consumers on issues to do with consumer safety.
“This has to do with people travelling on shipping vessels and their current discussions on the importation of aging/old shipping vessels.
“It is very disappointing to see that still in 2024, Fiji has vessels that on average are 20 to 30 years old.
“We must see a change in this, and this can only happen where businesses that have made their money from the shipping industry, continue to invest in it.”
For the grocery sector, Mr Abraham said they had been investigating the movement of prices, “especially essential items during Diwali which includes ghee pricing”.
He said they’ve received complaints from religious organisations and consumers on the prices being charged by supermarkets for ghee from July 2024 to September.
A short-term recommendation has been made to include ghee products under price control as FCCC’s assessment found that the combined markup for ghee in Fiji is 53 per cent from factory to retail.
“We are proposing that the Government also takes measures to implement an open market system for other products that are safe for our bio-security environment.
“This will allow for an opening of the market where there are a limited number of suppliers, enhancing competition in the market and increasing consumer choice — a critical step.
“The price relating to the supply of ghee products from factory, wholesale and retail are to be authorised by FCCC pursuant to section 41 of the FCCC Act 2010. Once this order is taken, we will announce the maximum wholesale price for ghee.”
He said for products that require multi-agency collaboration, such as non-iodised salt and non-dairy baby milk, consultations would be done with the Biosecurity Authority of Fiji, in addition to Government’s direct intervention.
Partnerships between FCCC and stakeholders in the food sector, like FMF Foods, have been realised in a reduction of staple food items.
He said they were also committed to ensuring that businesses do not make supernormal profits at the expense of consumers.
Soyabean oil price has been reduced from $5 per litre to $3.57 per litre.
For half-a-litre, 500 millilitre Soyabean oil, a new price will be set soon below $3.10 at $1.83 “which will be the lowest in the market and will be a game changer”.
Full cream milk powder price has been reduced from $8 to $4.75 on average for a 400-gram pack.
Laundry detergent used to retail for over $16. It is now at $7.95 for a 3-kilogram packet at introductory prices.
“We would like to thank FMF Foods Ltd for being a socially responsible business.
“One may ask why FMF Food Ltd? When a market has enough players and the market is not yielding results, we will go and talk to other businesses, who have the capacity to enter similar markets and at this juncture, we met with FMF Foods Ltd.
“We highlighted that they needed to come aboard as part of their corporate social responsibility to create more competition in the food market and they have done so by getting soya bean oil, full cream powdered milk, and non-food items like laundry detergent.”
For the agricultural, stationary, and LPG sectors, Mr Abraham said reviews were being made on the input costs in these markets to ensure that students and parents go back to school after the festive season without feeling the pinch of the burden of high stationary prices.
“For the agricultural sector, we are looking at input costs. In my meetings with farmers, one of the things that was highlighted was not only the pricing component but also the efficacy of some of these weedicides.
“We will also be drawing on funding from the Government to send these weedicides for testing and we are putting everyone on notice, who are part of this market, that if you are engaging in providing substandard adulterated products, fix yourself up.”
Mr Abraham said FCCC would not allow corporate greed to compromise consumer welfare.
“Profiteering and predatory pricing practices have no place in Fiji.
“These actions are not reflective of the Fijian way.
“Rest assured, we will take to task anyone who exploits consumers, ensuring fairness prevails in our markets.”
