An agreement, but a crisis which continues: the State announced Wednesday evening that it had signed an agreement, in particular with distributors, to reduce food prices by “20% on average” in Martinique, the scene since September of a mobilization against the high cost of living.
“Collective efforts”
This agreement, reached on Wednesday evening in Fort-de-France at the end of a seventh round of negotiations and announced by the prefect of Martinique, was however not signed by the collective Rally for the Protection of African Peoples and Resources. Caribbean (RPPRAC), at the origin of the mobilization since September 1, which slammed the door and called to “continue the movement”.
“The accumulation of collective efforts provided for in the protocol will allow hypermarkets to make a reduction of 20% on average in the sales prices currently practiced on a list of 54 families of products corresponding to the most consumed food products in Martinique”, a writes the prefect in a press release.
The “protocol of objectives and means to combat the high cost of living”, in this territory where food prices are currently 40% higher than in France, was signed between the local prefecture, the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique and a battery of local players, ranging from distributors (hypermarkets and supermarkets in particular) to parliamentarians, including the Grand Port maritime and the transporter CMA-CGM.
“There is an urgency to sign for the Martinique economy”
“Total disagreement”
“The lasting drop in food prices will result in particular, among others, from the entry into force of five major measures to structurally reduce the costs of purchasing and transporting the 6,000 imported food products (…), as well as a firm and obligatory commitment from major distributors to significantly reduce their margins on the sale of these products,” added the prefect. “There is an urgent need to sign for the Martinique economy,” he declared on the sidelines of the seventh round table on Wednesday. He also called for a “de-escalation of violence”, as authorities extended a nighttime curfew on the island on Monday until October 21.
“As long as the minister does not travel, no one will be able to move”
Since the beginning of September, this territory of the Antilles has been in the grip of social mobilization which degenerates at regular intervals into urban violence. In recent weeks, the island has experienced looting, fires, road blockages as well as the invasion of the airport of the capital Fort-de-France.
“The people in total disagreement (with the protocol) have decided to continue the movement,” the RPPRAC reacted immediately after the announcement. “We are asking that the minister (for Overseas Territories) travel to Martinique. As long as the minister does not travel, no one will be able to travel” on the island, where filter dams manned by activists have been multiplying for more than a month, the leader of the movement declared to his supporters at the end of the negotiations. , Rodrigue Petitot.
“All food”
If his collective did not sign the agreement, it is because he wanted the reduction in prices agreed by the State and the various local actors to concern “all food products” and not just around fifty families of products. “We are talking about 6,000 products out of 40,000. (…) Everyone agrees except the RPPRAC”, launched “the R” to its activists gathered under the building of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique. “We are ultra-determined. We maintain the blockages, we maintain everything. The fight is until you win your case,” he insisted.
“Since the RPPRAC has not signed,” he told AFP, “we cannot say that we are out of the crisis”
While in recent days a clear calm had settled on the island, Rodrigue Petitot warned: “We are going to do everything that needs to be done so that this problem (of the cost of living) can be resolved.” “I hope that there will be no excesses and slippages, because Martinican companies, particularly small ones, have paid a heavy price,” expressed concern after the signing Marcellin Nadeau, MP from the north of the island, around the table on Wednesday. “To the extent that the RPPRAC has not signed,” he told AFP, “we cannot say that we are out of the crisis.”
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