Is Martinique finally about to win the battle against the high cost of living? Some want to believe it, after a month and a half of popular mobilization against high food prices on this island in the Antilles. Seven laborious round tables between elected officials, representatives of the State and the private sector, in addition to numerous demonstrations organized by various associative and union organizations, were necessary to reach an agreement.
At the end of a new negotiation session under the auspices of the Territorial Collective of Martinique (CTM) and the prefecture, around thirty public and private partners signed a document on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 16. This protocol should result in “an average reduction of 20% in sales prices” of more than 6,000 food products in the island’s hypermarkets, the prefecture of Martinique stressed in a press release.
HE “protocol of objectives and means of combating the high cost of living” It is broken down into twenty-eight commitments assumed by the State, the CTM and the local distribution brands, but also by the maritime carrier CMA CGM – a key player in the importation of goods to the Antilles – as well as by the Grand Port Maritime. from Martinique. Among the signatories are also Martinican parliamentarians, as well as representatives of several socio-professional organizations on the island.
In the eleven-page document, these interlocutors “propose that it be examined during an observation period of thirty-six months” the implementation of these actions that are linked “around three axes” : the promises of “economic actors in the value chain”those of the local entity and those of the State.
Disappointment due to the non-alignment of all prices in France
However, an important interlocutor is missing from the list of signatories of this agreement: the group that launched, on 1Ahem September, the protest movement against the high cost of living, in this territory where the price of food products is 40% higher than in mainland France, according to an INSEE study published in July 2023. This group, the Rassemblement pour la Protection of Afro-People and Resources of the Caribbean (RPPRAC), left the negotiating table at the beginning of the evening, when they were still stumbling over one last obstacle: the number of products affected by the drop in prices.
“We are really disappointed”declared Gwladys Roger, treasurer of the RPPRAC, in a video broadcast on the social network Instagram, in which she recalls the group’s initial demand: “alignment” prices in Martinique compared to those in mainland France for “all the food”. The commitment acquired with “6,000 products over 40,000 references” in supermarkets is unacceptable, according to the activist.
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