FairPrice Group freezes prices on popular food items throughout the Chinese New Year period

SINGAPORE: FairPrice Group (FPG) announced that it will freeze the prices of popular seafood, pork, and vegetable items across its outlets from Jan 9 through the Chinese New Year period. This will keep the festive essentials “within reach for all”, the group said on Jan 9.

FPG has taken similar steps in previous years to help ease the financial burden on customers during the festive season.

The items included in the price freeze are seafood like Chinese pomfret, grey prawns, and red snapper — and vegetables such as enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and napa cabbage.

This year, spare ribs and minced pork have been added to the list due to their popularity, The New Paper reported, quoting Mr. Andy Chang, FPG’s director of fresh and frozen products.

FPG highlighted that prices for fresh produce often rise in wet markets during the Chinese New Year period.

Surveys conducted from Jan 2 to 7 showed that prices for items like Chinese pomfret and red grouper were 20 to 30 per cent higher in four wet markets—Chinatown Complex, Bedok, Tiong Bahru, and Ghim Moh—compared to FairPrice.

For instance, an extra large Chinese pomfret weighing 600 to 800 grams was priced at an average of S$57.33 per kg at wet markets, while it’s only S$39.80 at FairPrice.

In 2024, during the peak of price increases at wet markets, prices for higher-end seafood had nearly doubled, according to The New Paper.

Mr Vipul Chawla, FPG’s group CEO, said, “High demand for festive produce inevitably drives prices up, and so this price freeze is our way of making every day of the season a little better for our customers by keeping these popular festive essentials within reach.”

The price freeze will continue until Feb 12, the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

This initiative follows FPG’s announcement in December 2024 that holders of blue and orange Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) cards would receive a 6 per cent discount on Thursdays and Fridays from Jan 1 to March 1 at all FairPrice supermarkets and Unity outlets.

On Jan 3, FPG also announced that customers who spend S$60 on CDC supermarket vouchers in a single transaction at any FairPrice store will get a S$6 return voucher. /TISG

Read also: Get S$6 return voucher for every S$60 CDC supermarket voucher spent at FairPrice until Jan 12