SOURCE : NATIONAL

ABU DHABI - AUG 17: While some food costs have shown signs of stabilising in the capital, others have risen by more than 100 per cent in less than six months.

A survey by The National of essential food items in supermarkets in Abu Dhabi shows noticeable jumps in prices compared with late March.

In some cases, the rises vary wildly from one shop to the next, with the price of Filipino bananas going up by a quarter in one supermarket and not at all in another.

The huge increase in the cost of some products comes as many supermarkets are imposing a price freeze, albeit often on only a handful of the cheapest products.

As the price of oil and of food production rises, the cost of importing food has also, predictably, increased.

Foreign products surveyed at LuLu supermarket in Al Wahda Mall, the Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society in Abu Dhabi Mall and Carrefour in Marina Mall increased by an average of 14.6 per cent between late March and mid-August.

However, even UAE-produced products, such as bottled water, eggs and tomatoes, were hit – rising by an average of 8.8 per cent.

By far the biggest price rises were for Indian red onions, which increased by 169 per cent at the Co-op, from 65 fils a kilogram to Dh1.75.

The same product at LuLu went up from 75 fils to Dh1.65 – an increase of 120 per cent. Carrefour increased the cost of its red onions from Dh1.60 to Dh1.95, or by 21.9 per cent, albeit from a higher starting position than its competitors.

On average, the price of red onions in the capital has increased by 78 per cent.

The second-highest price rise was for UAE cucumbers, which jumped by 103 per cent (from Dh1.70 per kilogram to Dh3.45) between March and July in Carrefour, before they became unavailable.

A carton of 12 Jenan eggs in Carrefour jumped by 27.5 per cent, while “local” cucumbers at Lulu went up by 68.6 per cent, from Dh1.75 to Dh2.95.

On the whole, however, price rises from one supermarket to the next are consistent, with two-litre bottles of Lesieur cooking oil from France going up by 17.4 per cent, 16.5 per cent and 16.5 per cent at Carrefour, Lulu and Abu Dhabi Co-op respectively, to between Dh24 and Dh24.75 a bottle.

Since early July and mid-August, prices for most products have either not changed at all or risen by a few fils.

The one exception is Afia cooking oil at Carrefour, which rose almost two dirhams in a month to reach a price more consistent with its rival supermarkets.

The survey also shows that even water, the most essential of products, has gone up noticeably, even if in real terms the increase will not have too heavy an impact on the shopper.

Litre-and-a-half bottles of Masafi water went up by 27.3 per cent, from Dh1.10 to Dh1.40, at Carrefour. At Abu Dhabi Co-op, the same product went up by 12 per cent, from Dh1.20 to Dh1.40.

“I need about two of the bottles every day,” said Mohammed Rabi, 52, a phone salesman shopping for fruit in Abu Dhabi Co-op.

“Now it is not expensive, but it is more expensive than it was, I noticed the change. I don’t know if it will get more expensive. If it does I will drink water that is not in bottles.”

The prices for two-litre bottles of full-fat Al Ain and Almarai milk, from the UAE and Saudi Arabia respectively, did not change over the past five months, remaining at Dh10 each in all three supermarkets.