NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

Cost of food starts to come down

ABU DHABI - APR 12: Food prices are starting to ease and supermarkets have promised that consumers will continue to see a drop in the cost of some staples.

Since The National conducted its first survey of the price of a shopping basket a year ago, shoppers have seen soaring inflation, even on some of the most basic foods.

However, after signs late last year that prices were beginning to stabilise, items tracked by The National have now started to fall, albeit to a small extent.

The findings are in line with promises made by leading supermarkets towards the end of 2008.

All major chains said prices would be reduced in the first few months of 2009. The Ministry of Economy (MoE) also believes consumers can expect more reductions over the coming months, and said that the public was reporting “wide satisfaction” nationwide with current food prices.

The survey was first conducted on March 25 last year and then again in July, August, September, December and late last month. Items were inspected at three of the largest supermarkets in the city: Carrefour at Marina Mall; LuLu at Al Wahda Mall; and the Abu Dhabi Co-op at Abu Dhabi Mall.

The 10 items tracked at LuLu rose by an average 50 per cent during the year. The nine items tracked at the Co-op went up by an average 31 per cent, and 12 items at Carrefour rose by an average 27 per cent.

 Fresh imports have been the most susceptible to price rises. Indian red onions at two supermarkets increased by 200 per cent – from 75 fils to Dh2.25 (US$0.20 to 0.61) a kilogram at LuLu and 65 fils per kilo to Dh1.95 at the Co-op.

Onion prices have not changed in the last quarter at Carrefour and Lulu, but dropped 30 fils per kg at the Co-op. Between August and September, they increased by 40 per cent at Carrefour. Other items to have shot up include cucumbers produced “locally” – the country is not specified. At LuLu, they jumped from Dh1.75 per kg to Dh5.95 – or 240 per cent. The same product went up 132 per cent at Carrefour, from Dh1.70 per kg to Dh3.95.

At the start of last month, the Ministry of Economy promised to reduce the prices of 1,000 items to coincide with Gulf Consumer Protection Day.

Last week, Mohammed al Shihi, the director general of the ministry, said the MoE would meet vendors and suppliers “to make sure that the drops in the prices are matching the international trend” and reflected the reduction in fuel costs. The MoE also disclosed it was likely to establish a court to protect consumer rights.

Most items shot up in price in all supermarkets during the summer, coinciding with high fuel prices worldwide, which drove up the costs of transport and production.

Onions rose by an average 78 per cent across Abu Dhabi in the five months from March to August. Among other commodities to rise in the early part of the year were rice, bottled water, eggs, cooking oil, Australian lamb and Dutch beef tomatoes.

However, after a summer peak, prices for most items remained the same or fell in the following months. Only two items fell in price over the year – Arabic flat bread at Carrefour and Dutch tomatoes at LuLu.

The only products not to change price at all were two-litre bottles of Al Ain full-fat milk and of Almarai full-fat milk imported from Saudi Arabia, which remained at Dh10 each throughout the year.

The findings echo statistics gathered by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, which reported sharp rises in world food prices between March and July last year, since when a steady drop had occurred.

Imported items rose by an average 42 per cent at the Co-op, 39 per cent at LuLu and 25 per cent at Carrefour. Items produced locally went up 65 per cent at LuLu, 23 per cent at Carrefour and eight per cent at the Co-op, although the calculations were made with only a handful of items.

Annalise Curtis, 37, a British housewife, moved to Abu Dhabi with her husband, an engineering consultant, in December 2007. While she said she shopped at Spinney’s for British items, her weekly shop was usually at LuLu.

The mother of two said: “It took me a while to realise what was a sensible price to pay for food here, and I found that things were very, very different from one place to another.

“I really noticed things going up, especially things like nappies. It’s difficult to tell exactly because I don’t buy the same things from one week to the next. But when you come every week and you get used to seeing the prices every time you come, you spot changes.

“I guessed it was maybe something to do with the time of year or something like that, but I saw things changing with the price of meat last spring. When things fly up, part of you thinks ‘Well, they’ll be down again soon’. I don’t think I’ve seen that, so I think people just stop resisting and buy these things anyway.”

Dr Hashim al Neaimi, the manager of the consumer protection department of the MoE, said: “During the first quarter, we have seen a significant decrease in prices of supplies, such as powder milk. We are co-ordinating with major rice suppliers and holding talks with large outlets to debate any potential increase in prices.”

The second phase would consist of a series of meetings to discuss the prices of staple goods such as sugar and flour. “In our field tours, we have seen that the prices of many goods have gone down, and there is a wide consumer satisfaction across the UAE about the present phase.

“We are still monitoring the markets and are hoping for even lower prices in the next phase.”

Mr al Neaimi added: “There is a partnership between the ministry and some major suppliers in the UAE. There is an open market, and cooperatives and outlets are allowed direct importation. So this kind of partnership between us and the suppliers has led to a decrease by 30 per cent in prices of strategic goods, and this has been clearly noticeable in the previous phase.

“We are looking forward to even lower prices in the coming period.”

Georges M J Mojica, the general manager of the Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society, said: “The major products have been coming down, oil has been coming down, flour has been coming down. So we cannot say we are in a country where we’re going to be starving.

“Nobody wants to exaggerate, but you’ve got the cost of doing business which is growing in UAE. And somewhere or another you’ve got to pass the bill to somewhere.

“It’s not like last year. We had a huge increase in prices due to the raw materials in food staples. Now it is over. There are a lot of products that are coming down these days due to the economic situation.”

Mr Mojica said the increases were largely down to suppliers raising prices, but that retailers would not independently choose to charge more.

“We are in a situation where we have enough competition in town, a number of retailers. Nobody is going to be taking advantage of a situation to hike the price. It would be suicidal. The competition is there and the prices are coming down from every side.”

V Nandakumar, the corporate communications manager with the Emke Group, which runs the LuLu chain of supermarkets, said: “The prices of a lot of commodities skyrocketed. It was nothing unique to this country or this economy, it was happening all over the world.”

The chain agreed price caps on 35 key items with the MoE, and offered cheaper alternatives to the more commonly available products.

“The price caps were a necessity last year when the price of essential products skyrocketed due to global reasons. Now the prices of lots of commodities are coming down, again due to the global conditions. I can’t generalise all the categories, but there have been dips ranging to seven per cent to 15 per cent to more than 30 per cent.”

Further price rises were unlikely, he said. “The mood is kind of sombre. So none of the major retailers are looking to increase the prices.”

Carrefour did not respond when asked to comment.

Shifting sands and tides threaten sailors

ABU DHABI - APR 12: A senior coastguard official has warned sailors to pay attention to the tides after seeing almost 200 accidents around the island since the start of the year.

Many of the 173 recorded accidents involved boats going aground, caused by a combination of people not paying attention to tide levels and the effect of dredging going on around the island with the wealth of construction projects such as Al Suwwah Island and Saadiyat Island.

Some people have been lost at sea or have drowned in the strong currents around the island’s coast, said Major Humaid al Rumaithi, the Abu Dhabi Coast Department Manager.

Many people at sea, he says, do not realise how shallow some of the tides around the island are, and it has led many people with larger boats to relocate to marinas in areas such as Omenas, near Sal al Nakhel, which leads directly out to the open sea.

The department was set up at the start of this year, uniting four agencies into one team – including police, army, coast guard and navy – responsible for the island’s security, events such as the Red Bull Air Race and Formula One, and day to day safety.

“We want Abu Dhabi to be a safe environment,” he said. “It is our main goal. Many of the accidents we see can be avoided by small things such as people wearing life jackets and not speeding out on the ocean in jet skis and boats.”

They now have 13 patrol boats around the island.

The department, which is under the umbrella of the National Critical Infrastructure Authority, is installing trackers on all boats in the area to make search operations more effective. They have installed 180 already.

Last weekend, Wagih Mansour, the manager of Abu Dhabi Marine Charter, had his 75ft yacht stuck at sea because of the dredging.

It is, he says, a growing problem. As more and more construction envelops the island, there are more and more problems with the dredging.

“We now have a lot of people going aground, not just because of the dredging but the shallow waters.”

Maj al Rumaithi said the changes were happening so fast that it was impossible to keep up with marking the shifting channels.

Marking the channels that are affected by the dredging takes a lot of time, he says. Usually, the dredging happens and then the channels are marked, but with the amount of traffic on Abu Dhabi’s waters, it is now causing more problems.

Mr Mansour’s yacht has nearly Dh1 million (US$272,000) of damage after its rear sank, taking the coast guard’s team of 10 men seven hours to rescue it.

“I thought that was it,” Mr Mansour said. “I thought there was no chance the boat was going to make it. It was sinking so fast and it’s so heavy that I couldn’t see how they would manage to stop it sinking completely.”

Maj al Rumaithi said that to prevent such accidents, there needs to be more marking because of the dredging, and he is urging construction companies to implement a system to ensure everyone’s safety. “We need to compel the companies working on the dredging to mark off the channels,” Maj al Rumaithi said. “It’s the same as when you have contractors working on the roads. The rules should be applied on the sea also.”

A coast guard officer, Amin Ali, said the operation to rescue Mr Mansour’s 45 ton boat was “a race against time”.

“The boat was in severe damage and we were afraid that the tide would come and carry the boat away,” he said. “It was a huge boat so it made it very difficult for us. Even though it took seven hours, it was quick in terms of what was involved.” The boat, which was stuck in the sand, could not be lifted as rescuers would usually do.

Maj al Rumaithi said: “It was a huge operation and the guys did a great job. Even though it was a large boat, this kind of exercise is exactly what we are here for. It is just what we do on a daily basis.”

 
Heartbreak as horse gets US visa but rider does not

ABU DHABI - APR 12: The only Emirati showjumper to qualify for the sport’s World Cup looks likely to miss the event later this week after delays in obtaining a US visa for the competition.

Ahmed al Junaibi is still waiting for his visa to travel to Las Vegas for the FEI Showjumping World Cup, which starts in only six days.

This is despite the fact his Dh3 million (US$817,000) horse, Picobello Wodiena, and its Moroccan groom have already been granted visas.

“If I don’t go it will be hard for me because for eight years I have been working towards this, buying horses and training hard,” said al Junaibi, who competed at the Hazza bin Zayed al Nahyan Showjumping Competition in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.

The 37-year-old, who rode at the 2001 World Cup in Jerez, Spain, had been invited to join the American and Canadian showjumping teams in Florida, but his departure for the US has been so delayed that, if he goes at all, he will have to head straight to Las Vegas.

“There is no chance of any preparation in America now,” he said. “If I get the visa I will go directly to the show. Perhaps if I had a stamp in my passport that they didn’t like I could understand the delays. I don’t know why there are these problems; I was always in Europe training over the last decade and there were never any problems with immigration. We have had meetings with the embassy and they said I can go but after they said to wait and now they are quiet.”

Due to the complication of arranging air travel for Picobello Wodiena at short notice, al Junaibi’s camp doubts he will make it in time even if he gets a visa.

Although al Junaibi has yet to get permission to travel, he has not been told he has been refused entry. While Americans entering the UAE get an automatic 30-day visa, Emiratis must apply for the US through the American embassy.

Al Junaibi, who rides for the Emirates Heritage Centre, is one of only two Arabs to qualify for the World Cup, the sport’s showpiece event. The other is Saudi Arabia’s Hamed bin Moteb al Saud. Their preparations were very different.

The Saudi rider spent a month in Belgium, competing in top events. Al Junaibi has been doing as much as he can on the UAE’s smaller show scene.

“It’s frustrating,” al Junaibi said. “But, inshallah, I will be able to go. It is big money to buy a horse and transport it to shows around this region to qualify for the World Cup and I have not given up hope.”

Al Junaibi has been riding with the UAE team since 1991 and has spent time in Germany, France and Spain, where he said he has never had issues with immigration.

Under FEI regulations, a horse and rider must qualify together for the World Cup, and al Junaibi managed it even though he has partnered Picobello Wodiena for just five months.

Al Junaibi showed his class yesterday by winning the penultimate event of the day on Maxima, owned by Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa. After the prize-giving, both horse and rider led the lap of honour and came back for an encore to cheers from the stand.

Meredith Michaels Beerbaums, the first woman to reach number one in the FEI rankings in 2004, was watching. “It’s disappointing,” the German rider said. “I think sport should be free from politics.

“It is very encouraging that Emirati riders are proving they are of a world-class standard. One of these days they will actually get to compete.”

No one from the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi was available for comment yesterday.

RTA seeks to tighten minibus licensing

DUBAI - APR 12: Transport chiefs are considering more stringent licensing requirements for minibus drivers after a string of serious accidents, according to a senior transport official.

Dubai has witnessed two major minibus accidents in the past month that left six people dead and 20 injured, the majority of whom sustained brain damage and multiple fractures.

Minibus drivers do not have to take a special test; the only requirement is that they possess a valid light vehicle licence proving that they have been driving in the UAE for at least three years.

“Bad driving behaviours need actions after training and getting the licence, and this is what we are working on in our strategic plan for the year 2009-2010,” said Ali Abdullah Jassim, the director of licensing at the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). “Among the things being considered is the introduction of a ‘certificate of professional competence’.”

According to Mr Jassim, this certificate will be required for “any driver who intends to take up driving as a profession, especially if the vehicle is designed for transporting people”.

Currently, anyone wishing to drive a minibus seating between seven and 14 passengers need only present the valid light-vehicle driving licence, an original passport, a no-objection letter from their sponsor and the vehicle registration. They will be granted a licence on the spot permitting them to drive such vehicles.

“No training or testing is required,” said Khalid Javid, the senior instructor from Emirates Driving Institute. “After providing the required documents, the licence can be issued on the same day.”

Some people, however, say that since driving a minibus is little different from driving a car, a separate test should not be necessary.

“I drove a minibus full of people once, and I found it was very similar to driving a big car,” said Rupert Chesman, a resident of Dubai, and owner of a 4x4 vehicle. “As long as you have good enough driving ability, and can drive a normal car, then it is not necessary to take a separate test to drive a minibus. Maybe the issue lies with the initial test.”

On March 23, two people were killed and 10 injured when a minibus carrying Asian construction workers crashed near Dubai Academic City. In February, a minibus crash in Dubai killed four people.

Can Abu Dhabi be a pedestrian city?

ABU DHABI - APR 12: Wide, sweeping boulevards with shaded walkways, express traffic lanes and dedicated car, bus and taxi lanes are all part of a bold vision to transform Abu Dhabi into a pedestrian-friendly city.

Streetscape, as the plan has been called by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC), will not stop there. Existing blocks will be broken up, dissected by side roads in which thriving new communities will spring up.

Further details of the project, outlined in the Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, will be officially unveiled at Cityscape next Sunday, according to the UPC’s corporate communications director, Jean-Philippe Coulaud.

Michael White, senior planning manager for the UPC, also told The National this week that making Abu Dhabi a pedestrian friendly city was a top priority.

Mr White was responding to calls by Col Gaith al Zaabi, the director of the Ministry of Interior’s traffic department, urging municipalities to do more to improve pedestrian safety and protect drivers on the roads.

He acknowledged that changes had to be made.

“I think pedestrian safety is a problem in Abu Dhabi, and we need to do a number of things to improve comfort and safety,” he said. “So safer crossings, more frequent crossings, shorter crossings, more comfort providing shade, better universal access.”

With Streetscape some of the roads will be given back to the pedestrians, he said.

He noted that some blocks were nearly a kilometre long and needed to be broken up. “We want to create pedestrian friendly streets that respect the car,” he said. Hamdan Street, one of the city’s most congested roads, would be more efficient if there were points of access through the blocks, he said.

 “The whole city will work better,” he said. There could be better car parks, and more sidewalks in front of buildings. It would be safer and easier to walk through blocks and streets, he said.

Abdul Rahman Sharif, quality manager for the Saadiyat Bridge Project with the civil engineering contractors Züblin, called the plans “a welcome achievement”.

“If they can’t do it in Abu Dhabi,” he said, “then where can they do it?” Col al Zaabi, who oversees traffic in the whole of the emirate, said those in charge of urban development had to become more proactive to see the project through.

Pedestrians jumping over barriers and ignoring bridges, women too scared to use subways and drivers flouting the law are just some of the problems to be tackled, he said.

“The strategy is to reduce the number of crashes involving pedestrians being run over,” he said. “The Ministry of Interior is always coming up with new gestures, such as increasing traffic education by catching and fining jaywalkers.” He noted that motorists who did not give priority to pedestrians are fined Dh 500 (US$136).

Municipalities should also add control systems for pedestrians in front of crossings with traffic lights. Sometimes, pedestrians cross when the pedestrian traffic signal is red and are fined for doing so. Cars should not cross the yellow area in front of traffic lights, he said. Col al Zaabi also said municipalities had to do more to deter jaywalkers.

Sometimes construction workers put up barriers that are easy to break, so pedestrians pull them apart and cross the road, he added. These barriers may remain broken and for a long time.

Surveillance cameras should be added to pedestrian subways to reassure women, who may fear danger or harassment at night. People with special needs should also be taken into consideration, he said, citing the pedestrian overpass in the Tourist Club area. There should be a lift in front of the bridge, he said, not only stairs.

In the first 71 days of the year, 26 pedestrians died while crossing roads in Abu Dhabi and 117 were injured; in Dubai 24 were killed.

Police officials aim to reduce the number of these incidents mainly by fining pedestrians for jaywalking. The fines were raised last month to Dh200 from Dh50, but people continue to stream across multi-lane roads because cars rarely slow down at the zebra crossings, pedestrians say.

In the first 95 days of the year, Abu Dhabi police handed out 1,843 fines to jaywalkers, but only 64 motorists were ticketed for not giving pedestrians priority at designated crossings. A further 93 were fined for stopping on a yellow box junction inside an intersection, an offence that carries a penalty of Dh500.

“We set annual plans, we identity areas that need pedestrian crossings and coordinate with municipalities to add them,” Col al Zaabi said.

Abu Dhabi plans to have 500 new German-manufactured buses operating in the emirate by the end of the year, joining the existing fleet of 125 city buses and 30 suburban buses. Trams, a metro and water ferries are all part of a 20-year plan to reduce traffic in the emirate.

The Department of Transport, meanwhile, has set out measures to improve pedestrian safety, including reducing speed limits, particularly in school zones. The plan proposes that by 2015 speed limits be cut to 30kph from 60kph in some residential zones and that air-conditioned walkways be introduced.

But as the Urban Planning Council pointed out in its Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, every trip begins and ends with a walk, so maximizing pedestrian safety and comfort is “an absolute priority.”

At the moment, pedestrians do not enjoy that safety or comfort and there are few options for crossing roads safely other than to walk long-distances to the next intersection. There are 30 under-utilised underpasses in the emirate, according to the municipality. As part of its Salam Street expansion project, three pedestrian bridges were built in the Tourist Club Area – one near Abu Dhabi Mall, another on 12th Street near Hamdan Street and another on 10th Street near Hamdan Street. While some people make use them, others continue to dash in front of traffic at street level.

The municipality announced plans nearly a year ago to build more than 30 footbridges, including one near the public beach on Corniche Street and at least 12 outside the city. None appear to have been built.

Abdullah al Shamsi, director of roads and infrastructure for the municipality, was not available to comment this week.

In Dubai, the Road Transport Authority is working to protect pedestrians. Last year, six new footbridges were installed, and 17 more are expected to open by the end of the year. Dubai Metro, which is scheduled to begin service in September, will add an extra 29 footbridges, 18 of which will extend across Sheikh Zayed Road.