Consumer Council released its first specific price survey on rice of this year. Survey result showed that prices of rice remained stable, over half of the 15 surveyed products recorded no change in price and price differences recorded for the same product sold at different outlets ranged from 1 to 21 percent.

Consumer Council collected prices of 15 brands of rice from 21 retail outlets on 3rd January. In comparison with data from November, prices of rice remained stable as 8 rice brands remained the same price as last surveyed, only certain brands recorded price changes: price of ‘Wing On Thai Jasmine Rice/5kg’ had been decreased by over 12 percent in one retail outlet while that of ‘Double Ram Australian Calrose Rice/5kg’ had been raised by about 12 percent in another retail outlet.

Price differences ranged from 1 to 21 percent were recorded in the current survey in which ‘Wing On Thai Jasmine Rice/5kg’ recorded the biggest price difference. Price differences observed in the current survey are less significant compared with other specific price surveys on other categories of products. In this survey on rice price, price differences of less than 10 percent were observed in 10 rice brands, however, price difference of over 10 to 100 percent were observed in surveys on other categories of products.

The specific price survey on rice is now available on Consumer Council’s website (www.consumer.gov.mo) and in the Council’s ‘Supermarket Price Information Platform’ iPhone and Android apps. For inquiry, please call 8988 9315.