If you're buying rice at FairPrice, stop at 5 bags
Alfred Siew
Sun, May 11, 2008
The Straits Times
You can no longer buy more than five 10kg bags of rice at one go from NTUC FairPrice.
The quota is to discourage traders and small-time businesses from buying its cheaper rice and reselling it at a higher price, said the supermarket chain's managing director Seah Kian Peng last Friday.
Amid rising prices of rice, a survey conducted last month by the Consumers Association of Singapore revealed that FairPrice's house brand is the cheapest at 10 cents per 100g.
Shop N Save and Carrefour sell theirs at 14 cents per 100g and 16 cents per 100g respectively.
A spokesman for FairPrice told The Sunday Times yesterday that the quota has been implemented 'to moderate rice prices for consumers' interests'. The duration of the quota will depend on the level of demand for rice.
Over at Giant Hypermart and the Cold Storage Group, a spokesman said a quota will be imposed only if there is a cheap sale of rice.
FairPrice feels the quota is unlikely to inconvenience the public since many do not buy in bulk.
At an event in Ngee Ann City yesterday to celebrate Vesak Day, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam also commented on the impact of the cyclone in Myanmar on rice prices.
'The unfortunate destruction of rice fields in Myanmar means that in the short term, the price of rice will, of course, go up even further,' he said.
