Welcome to beautiful Samoa. The land of natural wonders, culture, the friendliest people on earth and high food prices. Undoubtedly, the cost of food in Samoa is not cheap.

Surprisingly, inflation has been on a downward trend yet this has not been reflected in the price of goods. There could be other factors affecting this but according to the experts at the World Bank, this has to do more with the effectiveness of the price control units in individual countries.

Is it surprising that the price control order has been the same since September 2023? The government should be concerned or at least the head honchos of the ministry that the price control unit comes under.

The Samoa Bureau of Statistics has been doing good work with surveys on prices and market demand and supply. These are the instruments needed for decisions on price control. The taxation and customs division of the government has data required to see what the actual cost of food items is, this can be then measured against the markup set by the retailers.

It is the responsibility of a good government to ensure that a person earning minimum wage can feed his family. The government has to ensure that through sound policies people are not being forced to consider cheaper and unhealthier nutrition. This is one of the reasons why 80 per cent of deaths in Samoa are because of non-communicable diseases.

An employee on a minimum wage of $4.00 an hour earns around $160 as gross income in a 40-hour week. Take out bills and travel. How full would this person’s shopping trolley be? This is the reality of the situation.

The price control unit can only do a small part in regulating prices if the laws permit them to. However, the biggest reason for the high food prices is the lack of investment in the agriculture and fisheries sector. The food import bill is high.

There is also a correlation between high-priced imports and local agricultural products. The local vendors increase their prices because, at the end of the day, they need the extra money to buy the overpriced food items.

Major vegetables and fruits that can be produced locally and are high in nutritional value are missing from the shelves of supermarkets. Samoa’s agriculture sector is struggling.

The collapse of commercial farming for local markets has left the country with a shortage of food and agricultural productivity. This has resulted in high food prices and people leaning more towards processed food because they are cheaper than vegetables, one of the many reasons why this nation has a high percentage of non-communicable diseases.

Government subsidies to promote large-scale commercial farming based on evidence that the yield would be beneficiary for the farmers. It should also be based on what can be produced for the local markets.

Green leafy vegetables, legumes and other types of root crops are not being farmed at large enough scales and there is a market for those. We are feeding tourists with imported food. Imagine marketing the ‘Grown in Samoa’ brand.

Samoa’s subsistence and semi-commercial farmers and fishers cannot take it to the next level because of a lack of financing. The World Bank has said that Samoa’s small size, remoteness and vulnerability to climate shocks and natural disasters constrain its economic growth.

The best thing for now is to focus on feeding the local population with locally grown vegetables and livestock. Instead of eating overpriced fatty flaps of lamb or hormone-injected chicken, where are the cattle, goats and poultry farms? Give incentives for such local ventures. Make them tax-free, increase local employment and locally grown produce.

Attract overseas investors to do that in Samoa.

Rising food costs can have a major impact on food and nutrition security as these push the most vulnerable households further into poverty and weaken their ability to access adequate food. These hardships can force poor families to sell off assets or forego other essentials creating a long-lasting poverty trap that becomes ever harder to escape. Particularly for children, even short-term worsening of nutrition can lead to permanent detrimental effects.

While the challenge is formidable, there is no reason that we cannot achieve food security so that all people, at all times, have access to affordable, sufficient, safe and nutritious food. High and volatile prices make things much more difficult for the poor.

High prices, especially for the most vulnerable can have a devastating impact on their welfare, nutrition and food security. As we are working together for CHOGM, we can do the same for agriculture and fisheries.