The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost every facet of life. Citizens have to prioritise their financial responsibilities such as rent, utilities, medicine, it can be especially financially challenging for households with limited food dollars.
The situation becomes more acute with many people thrown on the breadline or their income has been drastically reduced.
Sunday Guardian asked homeowners and supermarkets for tips how consumers can stretch their dollars when shopping for food during the pandemic.
Since VAT is now applied to so-called luxury foods such as grapes, apples and champagne, several supermarkets were asked what were they doing to help their customers with initiatives such as discounts, deals, banded offers, four items for $20 and other incentives.
Kay Millington, a mother of four children, and grandmother of eight, from Santa Cruz, said "You buy the basic items first, like rice, flour, sugar, salt, milk, oil, peas, chicken, turkey, garlic, onion, and vegetables.
"You can also look for deals and buy in bulk and put down for the rainy day."
Roxanna Hastick, a mother of six, from Belmont, said "I try as much as possible to get as much as I can at the Port-of-Spain market. I avoid many no-name products because I end up using more; laundry detergent is a really good example. With some brands of rice, I boil two cups to feed my family one meal, but other brands I need to use three cups.
"Impulse buying is the kryptonite of any budget. Make a list days in advance of receiving money. Revise the list at least 48 hours later then stick to it."
•Agricultural economist Omardath Maharaj said T&T imported US$15.45 million in oxtails between 2012 and 2016. He said in Jamaica, while this product was a high-valued delicacy for generations, they were shifting to low-valued stewed turkey necks also referred to as 'ghetto-style oxtail' as a substitute.
Maharaj said the same substitution can be expected here in T&T as the country faced rising food prices and foreign exchange pressure which strained its capacity and dependency on imported food.
He said T&T should be actively working towards developing its national herds of domestic cattle such as bison and buffalypso including the farmers who remain in production.
•Supermarket Association of T&T (SATT) President Rajiv Diptee said where possible for deals and bargains, it was a challenging time. He said, however, customers can look forward to the kind of deals in 2021 that they saw at year-end 2020 during the course of the year, notwithstanding the peaks and troughs of seasonal periods as well as demand and supply.
Diptee said challenges existed for foreign exchange and will continue to do so. There was a huge discussion that required national intervention to ensure that food security remained a foremost paramount concern.
He said the country must prioritise food security in the national agenda as well as return focused agricultural initiatives to the forefront.
•A representative from Tru Valu Supermarket said it currently had Get You to PayDay specials designed to keep pantry essentials stocked at a reasonable price for families at this time and ran every January after Christmas.
•CEO ADM Distributors Ltd and former SATT president Balliram Maharaj said with T&T's foreign exchange reserves decreasing to US $7140.40 million in November 2020 from US $7167.50 million in October 2020, the country was in serious trouble if the Government didn't take drastic action to control its forex.
He said if the country didn't proceed with caution it could run into deep trouble with food supplies and perhaps a similar situation like Venezuela.
Maharaj said he will support the idea to use heavy taxes on luxury items, in addition to putting some of that money in a fund to use for technology for growing the country's own food, training people in food production plus a portion for the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers.
He said the current duty on frozen french fries should be raised from five per cent to 50 per cent to encourage the local consumption of cassava fries, its cultivation, as well as local plantain and potato chips and other products that can be grown locally.
•Shara Solomon, Relationship Manager, Magna Rewards (Trinidad) Ltd said Magna provided a platform for its valued merchants to reward customers with points when they swipe their card for a transaction.
She said holders of a Magna Rewards card earn points every time they use their card. Upon checkout, Magna merchants award customers a percentage of their total bill as Magna points.
Solomon said these points have a monetary value which can be accumulated and redeemed towards future purchases, redemption meant that customers used their points instead of cash to purchase items from the Magna merchant.
She said with Magna Instant Redemption, customers had immediate access to ‘extra funds’ at their fingertips, customers no longer had to wait for a voucher in the mail, they can swipe their cards to redeem their points or use the online redemption option.