The prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, announced on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 16, that he had signed an agreement, in particular with distributors, to reduce “20% on average” Food prices in Martinique, an island in the Antilles that has been in the midst of a mobilization against the high cost of living for more than a month.
This agreement, reached on Wednesday afternoon in Fort-de-France at the end of a seventh round of negotiations, was however not signed by the collective Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), which was the origin of the mobilization since September 1, which closed the door and asked “continue the movement”.
HE “protocol of objectives and means of combating the high cost of living”in this territory where food prices are currently 40% more expensive than in France, was signed between the local prefecture, the Territorial Collective of Martinique, parliamentarians, distributors (hypermarkets and supermarkets in particular), wholesalers, the Grand Port Maritime, the carrier CMA-CGM, representatives of the economic world and the Prices, Margins and Income Observatory.
“The accumulation of collective efforts provided for in the protocol will allow hypermarkets to make an average reduction of 20% in the sales prices currently applied to a list of 54 product families corresponding to the most consumed food products” on the island, the prefect of Martinique wrote in a press release. “The lasting drop in food prices is due, among other things, to the entry into force of five important measures to structurally reduce the purchasing and transportation costs of the 6,000 imported food products. […]as well as a firm and obligatory commitment on the part of large distributors to significantly reduce their margins on the sale of these products”he added.
“It is urgent to sign for the economy of Martinique”declared on Wednesday the prefect Jean-Christophe Bouvier to Agence France-Presse, on the sidelines of the seventh round table, who also asked “de-escalation of violence”while the authorities extended the night curfew on the island until October 21 on Monday. Since the beginning of September, this overseas territory has been the scene of social mobilizations that degenerate at regular intervals into urban violence.
