Minister of Food Security Says the Chamber Needs to Broaden Its Base

Jose Abelardo Mai

And while the chamber has an issue with the government’s initiative and says it was not consulted, the minister responsible for food security, Jose Abelardo Mai, says the process cannot be delayed any longer. He chides the B.C.C.I. and suggests that it needs to broaden its base so that there can be proper representation when consultations of this nature are held.

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Food Security

“I saw a release issued by Chamber of Commerce. I don’t know who voted for them. We are a government elected by the people. The people and we know that there is price gouging and there is inflation – it’s real. When we invited the people to meet with us, the importers and the retailers and those who have stores, the question should have been how many of them are on the Chamber of Commerce. I don’t know. How much people run the Chamber of Commerce? So when we discussed this in Cabinet and came up with that list, it’s because the people are demanding that from us, the government. And it is the people who voted for us. So when they are saying that they were not consulted, maybe they should go out and broaden their membership, so that they are well-represented when we meet with them. But we cannot be consulting every single person. This thing has been dragging on for a long time, so we need to get this done. We expanded the list, and now we are meeting with them to reach a level of understanding to see, let us try to control the percentage on the profits on this, so I don’t know why this would be a problem with them. My suggestion to them is they need to amplify their membership so that they are represented in these meetings. We cannot delay the process. I mean the people out there are suffering. Inflation is real. A lot of it was imported. We didn’t make it; we didn’t increase the price. So we need to deal with it right away.”