The Por Tor Festival, a major cultural festival among ethnic Chinese across the island, and especially in Phuket Town, began on Monday (Aug 28) and will continue through to Sept 14.
Two retailers inspected yesterday (Aug 30) were Phuket Grocery in Phuket Town and the wholesale rice distributor Namsaeng Rice Trading Ltd.
Pathumphon Yamkerd, Chief of the Trade Economic Supervision and Development Group at the Phuket Provincial Commercial Office, led officials to conduct checks at both locations.
The officials reported finding no evidence of hoarding products, a practice which leads to artificially inflated prices, and found that prices of all products were displayed clearly and accurately in compliance with the law.
Tawich Bunprasert, Manager of Phuket Grocery, said there was ample stock of the products currently in high demand for the festival.
“Therefore, the prices can remain unchanged,” he said.
“Please be assured that there will be no opportunity to increase product prices due to increased consumer demand during the festival. and certainly will not affect consumers,” Mr Tawich said.
The Phuket Provincial Commerce Office noted that business operators must clearly display prices, and urged “people should not panic and hoard more products than necessary”.
“Due to the current situation, it is found that product prices are still within the normal range,” the office said in its report of the checks.