By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: The Union of Cooperative Societies told Kuwait Times that a seven-member investigation committee has been formed to follow up with food supplying companies the reasons that resulted in price hikes of some food products. The committee will follow up with three official parties to discuss the reasons for the price hikes that the suppliers provided to the union earlier, according to the President of the Union of Cooperative Societies Baddah Al-Dosari.

The investigation committee will check prices with the ministry of commerce, Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources and Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakeries Company to gauge whether suppliers' claims regarding the rate of price rises is truly affecting them. Dosari said the union called on Tuesday for an urgent meeting with all cooperative societies to set and negotiate prices of eggs, pointing out that 10 cooperatives out of 69 attended the meeting. Although the meeting made several decisions, the most important was the investigative committee.

"Recently, we had a meeting with suppliers, who claimed their losses are high and they cannot provide the needed amounts of eggs due to the rise in prices of wheat and soya globally. Also, the ministry of commerce canceled subsidies on some materials, which caused them huge losses, they said," Dosari said, adding the suppliers claimed they got rid of more than 50 percent of chickens after they were unable to keep pace with the rise in prices." We are working on effective steps to find a solution for suppliers.

Meanwhile, if we cannot reach a final solution through these bodies, we will report this issue to the Cabinet to examine all the aspects of this issue in a transparent manner," he added.

"As we clarified earlier, we promise consumers to resolve the egg price issue in a couple of days. The union is trying to balance between consumers, cooperatives and local suppliers as well, who are a part of our economy and we don't want to cause any loss to them," Dosari said. He said the union will resort to the option of directly importing eggs to ensure the availability of eggs to the consumers if the issue couldn't be resolved. He said the suppliers said they will keep providing the market with a small number of eggs, calling on consumers to rationalize consumption and only buy the needed amount until the issue is resolved.