Many businesses have taken advantage of the security crisis shaking New Caledonia to apply excessive prices, including on regulated products, an “unacceptable and intolerable” practice, denounced Thursday the local government which intends to impose “control measures “. “Faced with the current situation, it has been noted that certain traders are taking advantage of the circumstances to exaggerately increase the prices of their products, some of which are regulated, making this practice completely illegal,” the collegial government wrote in a press release. “This practice is all the more unacceptable and intolerable” as “solidarity and collective responsibility must take precedence”, he added, while fears of shortages of food and medicine run through the archipelago, shaken since more than a week by an outbreak of violence.
President Emmanuel Macron declared on Thursday upon his arrival in New Caledonia that one of the priorities of his lightning visit was to achieve a “return to normal care, to supplies, to food”. “I know that many populations today are suffering from a situation of great crisis. Either some of our compatriots are sick, or others are having great difficulty eating today,” he said on the tarmac of Nouméa international airport.
In order to “protect consumers against all forms of abuse, the government will put in place strict price control measures,” wrote the New Caledonian government, without details or timetable. He said he was “determined to protect the purchasing power” of Caledonians and reminded traders “of the importance of charging controlled, fair and reasonable prices”. In ten days, riots arising from the protest by separatists against electoral reform left six people dead in New Caledonia, including two police officers.