SINGAPORE: After a study from SingStat concerning the price increase of hawker food was covered by the media on Sunday (May 26), questions about it have arisen from the public, including food guru and Makansutra owner KF Seetoh.
In a Facebook post on Monday night, Mr Seetoh appeared to feel that the report on the topic published in The Straits Times (ST) painted an incomplete picture. Mr Seetoh wrote that the ST piece “baffled” him.
The study said that the price of hawker food increased by 6.1 per cent last year, up from 5.7 per cent in 2022. SingStat analyzed 16 food items and beverages commonly sold in F&B venues using the consumer price index for hawker food, which measures average price changes of over 100 hawker food items from 1,700 stalls.
“Did you even question which 100 dishes they price-sampled? What are the rising food cost impact and operational pressures and what back-of-house work is needed to bring it to the front?
Chicken rice (and) cha kway teow clearly have vastly different operation (and) food costs. You think mee rebus going to $3.79 from $3.26 in Singapore is P1 (page 1) material?” Mr Seetoh added.
In a comment to his post, veteran journalist Bertha Henson said she agreed with one of Mr Seetoh’s points but asked him to clarify what he meant:
“Don’t understand the rest of your post. What did u think the ST could have done with the stats piece? Methodology? Or that prices are already low compared to other countries?” she asked.
Mr Seetoh replied that ST could have “question(ed) the stats.”
Meanwhile, in a letter concerning the same topic published on the ST Forum on May 28, one Singaporean appealed to the government to measure the quality of hawker food amid the rise in prices.
Mr Harry Ong Heng Poh mentioned straightaway that he felt that the prices cited in the SingStat report “were understated” since, in his experience, the price of hawker food had risen between 50 cents and one dollar, which he said is around 20 per cent of the original price.
However, he also claimed that the food supply has declined, and even the price of takeaway containers has gone up.
“The survey should look not only at the prices but also the quality of the food served. We do not mind paying more for our food provided we get value for money.
Even after the price increase, it seems that there are fewer prawns in a plate of Hokkien mee, and the quality of fishballs in a bowl of noodles has dropped,” he wrote. /TISG
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