The Supermarkets Association welcomes the increased foreign exchange allocation for food imports, but says it may be too late.

President of the association Rajiv Diptee tells Newscenter 5 the worst is yet to come with importation cost. 

A few days ago Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Goopie-Scoon signaled that her government was strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem through implementation of an apprenticeship program for the Non-Energy Manufacturing Sector.

In addition she also said more forex for the sector would be made available.

Mr. Diptee believes, this may ineffective at this time.

The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago in its March 25^th, 2022 Monetary Policy Announcement, headline “Inflation Domestically” stood at 3.8% year-on-year in January 2022 compared with 3.9 per cent in October 2021. 

Food inflation eased to 6.6% from 7.6% in October, partly due to the zero-rating of Value Added Tax on additional food items from November 2021.