Head of the All Island Canteen Owners’ Association (AICOA) Asela Sampath charged that supermarkets are engaging in fraudulent practices to cheat customers by selling brown and white sugar mixed together.

Therefore, the AICOA requests the Trade Minister to pay more attention to consumer goods as he has done to the eggs issue. 

Sampath claimed that there is no point in the government giving concessions to the people if the black market and fraudulent businessmen continue to mislead innocent consumers.

“The retail price of a kilo of white sugar is Rs. 220, and a kilo of brown sugar is Rs. 360. By mixing brown sugar with white sugar and then selling it as brown sugar at a higher price, the supermarkets are making a profit of Rs. 140 per kilogram. People prefer to buy brown sugar more than the white sugar in the market because brown sugar is considered cleaner that the white variety,” Sampath said.

Asela Sampath added that consumers usually patronize supermarkets because of the quality of their goods. “If the supermarkets too resort to these actions to mislead their customers, then we have to gather in front of every supermarket and raise public awareness on this issue,” he said.

source daily mirror