By Anca Voinea
The Kuwait Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies has expressed concerns over suggestions to privatise the country’s co-operative retail societies.
According to Kuwait-based English-language newspaper Arab Times, the president of the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies Abdul Wahab Al-Fares, along with other co-operative leaders, has rejected the recommendations of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry regarding the privatisation of co-operative societies.
“We will not accept the privatisation of co-operative societies under any circumstances. These are shareholders’ rights,” Al-Fares said in an interview with Arab Times.
The speculations around the privatisation of retail co-ops come after the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Muhammad Al-Aiban, revealed a plan to address inflation and the increasing prices of essential food commodities on 5 September.
According to Kuwait Times, the plan comprises ten urgent recommendations, including “adopting models for the privatisation of co-operative societies to reduce administrative costs and bolster the role of the private sector in the economy, under the jurisdiction of the General Investment”. Another recommendation made is revisiting the country’s co-operatives law to “enhance oversight of the board of directors’ practices in co-operative societies and strengthen governance, overseen by the Ministry of Labor Affairs and the Federation of Associations”.
Last month, the Union signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to oversee the pricing of goods and services within co-operative societies and parallel markets. Under the MoU, the Union will grant the Ministry of Commerce access to its price database. The data to be shared will include product details such as the product’s name, brand, size and weight, country of origin, price and barcode.
The Union has also recently launched a price disclosure platform featuring prices for over 139,000 types of commodities with the aim of ”tackling artificially inflated prices across co-operative societies, maintaining price balance and facilitating transparency in pricing across co-operatives”. The Union said it conducted market inspections to ensure adherence to price guidelines.
Kuwait is home to over 60 consumer co-operatives, which account for 60% of the grocery landscape.
