Ellen Boldon, our nutritionist in Fond des Blancs, has begun tracking local food prices.  The figures are in Haitian dollars, but increases are shown as a percentage.   Please note that these prices are for our region only.  It's probably a completely different story in PaP.

The price for a 100 lb (large sack) of rice was ~$350 HT before, and is now ~$440 HT, an increase of ~25%. I no longer know what the exchange rate is, but using the old exchange rate it means that it cost $44 US and now costs $55 US.

This cost measure is not what affects most people here.  Most people buy the rice by the mamit (measured in a commercial size can), and the percent increase in that measure is considerably higher.  It has risen by 46%, and the other grains (corn, petimi) have risen by more than 50%.  The sellers buy the grains by the sack and sell it by themamit so they are making more profit and before, but because the cost of gas has doubled, transportation costs for them to get to market are a lot higher.  We suspect that there is some degree of price gouging goins on as well.

Before, $HT       Cost 22/1/10, $HT            % increase

Gasoline                                                         50                            100                             100.0

Cooking oil, gallon                                       50                              55                               10.0

Rice, mamit                                                    24                               35                               45.8

Beans, mamit                                                 35                               40                               14.3

Sugar, mamit                                                  25                               40                               60.0

Spaghetti, case                                              85                             110                              29.4

Corn, mamit                                                    13                               20                              53.8

Pitimi, mamit                                                   13                               20                              53.8

Wheat                                                             15                               20                              33.3

The situation will only get worse as time goes on and food shortages increase.

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