Government wants to shed itself of Food City Supermarket

Government wants to exit the supermarket industry, shedding itself of Food City, the state-owned supermarket.{{more}}

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told reporters on Tuesday that Food City was to be a “a stabilizer of prices” in the absence of price control and because of the dominance of the industry by two main supermarkets.

He said there was now enough privately owned supermarkets “for competition to take care of the price level.”

“And we would like to get out of the supermarket business. You may have a policy which works at point A, but when circumstances change, you can change policy at point B,” Gonsalves said.

Food City, formerly managed by the Marketing Corporation, is now under the stewardship of state-owned company National Properties Limited.

Shafia London, Executive Director of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, has suggested that the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA) manage the supermarket.

The Chamber’s lease of two car parks here will be discontinued and given to WINFA and the National Labour Congress to run. (KXC)