Ritika Pratap 
Fijian consumers lack unity and rely heavily on the government when there are price hikes on certain products.
Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission Chief Executive Joel Abraham says price regulation is not a solution to all the problems.
His comments come as there was an exorbitant increase in the price of chicken when the new VAT rate kicked in.
Speaking on FBC TV’s Saqamoli Matters last night, Abraham says many items in supermarkets are not price-controlled and are purely determined by businesses themselves.
He stresses that an overregulated market will not be able to perform well.
“Consumer solidarity, you look at other developed jurisdictions where consumers will boycott a product. They will say, as a trader, you have jacked this price too high, consumers will go on social media and they will boycott particular products, and the sales of that product will start coming down. This will put a lot of burden on the companies that are selling it and the companies will adjust the prices. These are forces of demand and supply.”
Abraham says the largest economic actor in any sector is the consumer, and the general reliance that the government will fix everything is an unreasonable expectation.
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