Food prices remained largely stable in Singapore last year

Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia 28 Jan 09;

SINGAPORE: According to a survey of 255 food samples conducted by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), food prices remained fairly stable in the second half of 2008.

70 per cent of the food samples saw no change in prices. 10 per cent decreased in prices while the remaining 20 per cent went up.

The price increase ranged from 10 cents to a dollar.

56.6 per cent of food found in non air-conditioned coffee shops and hawker centres are priced at S$2.50 and below.

The survey also found that chicken rice had the greatest price discrepancy at different places, ranging from S$1.30 to S$3.50 a plate.

To find out where you can find the cheapest hawker food, log on to www.case.org.sg. - CNA/vm

Watch what you eat ... price-wise
Ansley Ng, Today Online 29 Jan 09;

PERHAPS, if you were lucky, a serving at your regular chicken rice stall cost you 50 cents less; while, unfortunately, the price of your morning roti prata went up by 20 cents.

As Singaporeans start to watch their spending more closely, here’s interesting news: In the last half-year or so, cooked food prices have dropped in 10 per cent in some instances, but gone up in 20 per cent of cases, according to a Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) study.

The second Cooked Food Price Survey, conducted in November and December, also found that prices of70 per cent of 255 food samples — from hawker centres, food courts and coffeeshops — stayed as they were in May, when the first survey wascarried out.

While Case president Yeo Guat Kwang calls this a “good sign”, the fact that prices went in opposite directions appears confounding.

For instance, seven stalls selling chicken rice raised prices by 20 cents to 50 cents, but nine others slashed theirs by 50 cents to a dollar.

For mixed vegetable rice (two vegetables, one meat servings), 22 stalls raised prices by 10 cents to 30 cents – but six brought theirs down by 20 cents to $1.

Case executive director Seah Seng Choon explained: “Some (hawkers) might be in areas where there is high traffic flow and the demand can sustain that kind of (high) prices. Others may be in housing estates where the traffic is not high. They may want to keep their prices constant or even bring it down.”

The survey looked at: five popular food items. In total, 408 food samples were surveyed, out of which 255 were involved in the May survey as well.

There is generally bad news for fans of chicken nasi briyani, as prices across the board went up: The cheapest plate at $2.30 in May last year, was $2.80 by the year’s end, a 22-per-cent hike.

But fishball noodles and chicken rice afficionadoes generally saw prices holding steady.

Over the next months, Case will conduct another survey to see if cooked food prices drop, Mr Yeo said. Official projections have it that general inflation for 2009 will fall between 0 and minus-1 per cent, but it’s difficult to say if this would be the case for food prices which are subject to global supply swings: The wholesale price of rice, for instance, has risen with the new year.

Commercial rentals, at least, are expected to come down, in part because of rebates doled out in Budget 2009.

Mr Yeo stressed, the survey did not aim to judge whether it was fair for hawkers to adjust prices, but to help consumers make “informed choices”. “At least they know what is the price range,” he said. “If they think it’s too expensive, they can walk away and go to another one.”

But public relations executive Dominic Leong, 26, who eats out most of the time, said he would likely stick with his regular stalls as “it wouldn’t make sense for me to go all the way to Boon Lay or Tampines for a plate of chicken rice just because it’s 50 cents cheaper”.

80% of hawkers didn't raise prices
Straits Times 29 Jan 09;

NEARLY 190 hawker stalls have not increased their prices over the past six months, despite escalating costs and dropping sales, a survey released yesterday showed.

According to the second Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) cooked-food survey, 20 mystery diners found prices mostly unchanged when they revisited 237 non-air-conditioned food stalls over a three-week period from the end of November last year. Prices were compared with a two-week survey in May last year, when the same stalls were visited for the first time.

The survey focused on one-person portions of five popular dishes - chicken nasi briyani, non-halal chicken rice, fishball noodles, three plain roti prata, and a plate of rice with two servings of vegetables and one of meat.

Most of the stalls visited - 70 per cent - did not alter their prices. Another 20 per cent increased their prices from 10 cents to a dollar, while the remaining 10 per cent decreased prices by the same amount.

Prices of staple foods increased during the first six months of last year, but dropped in the following months before slowly increasing again over the past two months. Despite this, hawker meal prices remained largely the same.

Sales of hawker fare have also dropped by up to half, said hawkers The Straits Times spoke to. However, many hawkers say that increasing their prices is not an option, although costs have gone up.

Said Mr Teo Jew Kit, owner of a chicken rice stall at a coffee shop in Bukit Batok: 'The current price is what people accept. If we increase it too much, they might not accept it.'

JESSICA LIM