Martinique: the State agrees to reduce food prices by 20% but the mobilization continues

An agreement but a continuing crisis. The State announced this Wednesday, October 16, that it had signed an agreement, particularly with distributors, to reduce “20% on average” food prices in Martinique (new window)scene since September of a mobilization against the high cost of living.

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. The collective (new window) slammed the door and called for “continue the movement”.

6000 products concerned

“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 charged on a list of 54 product families corresponding to the most consumed food products in Martinique”wrote 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 actors, ranging from distributors (hypermarkets and supermarkets in particular) to parliamentarians, via the Grand Port Maritime and the transporter CMA CGM.

“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.

Minister François-Noël Buffet ordered to come to the site

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 and the invasion of Fort-de-France airport. The night curfew (new window) has been extended until October 21.

“The people in total disagreement with the protocol have decided to continue the movement”the RPPRAC immediately reacted. “We are asking that the Minister of 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, Rodrigue Petitot, declared to his supporters at the end of the negotiations.

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” and not just around fifty product families. “We are talking about 6,000 products out of 40,000. (…) Everyone agrees except the RPPRAC”he told his activists.

• Read also

  This tax will be suspended on essential products in Martinique: what is dock dues?

“We are ultra-determined. We maintain the blockages, we maintain everything. The fight is until we win our case”he insisted. While in recent days, a clear calm had settled on the island, Rodrigue Petitot warned: “We are going to do everything we need to do so that this problem of the cost of living can be resolved.”

“I hope that there will be no excesses and slippages, because Martinique businesses, especially small ones, have paid a heavy price”expressed concern after the signing Marcellin Nadeau, deputy for 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”.