Vegetable Oil Import Data refute the Pretexts of the “Government of Raising Prices”

The price of sunflower seed oil in the halls of the “Syrian Trading” company is equivalent to $2 per liter, while in many countries around the world, the “unsubsidized” liter is sold at about $1 to $1.5 (or what is equivalent to 3500 to 5200 SP). Let alone the profits of the “non-smart” market, where the price of a similar bottle is no less than 9500 SP, and it sometimes reached 11000 SP (about $3).

The First Method of Calculation

Let’s first try to calculate the profits of imported vegetable oil trading in Syria, on the basis of some of the figures made by the economist Ammar Youssef in his statement to (Al-Watan) local newspaper on Sunday, November 7, where he said that “the nearest country that produces vegetable oil from which it can be imported is Ukraine” and that “the price of  one metric ton imported from Ukraine, which is equivalent to 1100 liters of oil, was at about $450 six months ago, and importing it to Syria costs about $80. That is, the price of one liter upon its arrival to the port of Latakia is about 1250 Syrian pounds, without custom taxes and other costs”. If we follow the calculation of this economist and add the Syrian custom tax on sunflower seed oil (mentioned in the website of the International Trade Center ITC) which is 1.9%, the price of one liter after customs is 1274 SP. Even if we assumed that its costs upon its arrival to the consumer outlet has reached 1300 SP for example, profit would still be exorbitant. So, according to the pricing of the Ministry of “Costumer Protection” (7200 SP) which according to this calculation amounts to at least five and a half times the cost price, the profit rate snatched from the citizen’s pocket is at least 450%! As for the “non-smart” market merchant, if he sold the liter for 9500 SP (i.e. more than seven times the cost), then his profit rate is at least 630%, and if he sold it for 11000 SP, his profit rate is 746%!

The Second Method of Calculation

Someone might say that our abovementioned calculation is “exaggerated”, and that is for example because it is ignoring other source countries from which sunflower oil was imported into Syria. In order to take into account the diversity of import sources of this commodity, perhaps the best way is to take the average import price calculated on the basis of the actual detailed data of import to Syria, which is published in the website of the “International Trade Center”. The latest mentioned information on the website is that the average import price of this commodity to Syria in 2020 is $990 per metric ton of this product, which carries the title code HS 1512 according to the “Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System” (HS), which specifically means any product that matches the following description “Sunflower Seed, Safflower or Cotton Seed Oil and their fractions thereof, whether or not refined, but not chemically modified”. Accordingly, we can recalculate as follows: the import cost of one liter of the mentioned oils to Syria in USD – and before customs, is $990 divided by 1100 liters (the size of a metric ton of oil) which results in $0.9 per liter and then we add to it the custom tax 1.9% to become $0.9171/liter. So, the bottom line is that the average import cost is 3210 SP only. With these huge profit rates from such an important food commodity, amidst starvation and other aspects of plunder that the Syrian people are suffering from, we can only remember the note that Marx cited in his book “Capital”, which is still valid, where he asserted that a profit rate of 100% will make capital ready to “trample on all human laws”, and when the profit rate is 300% then “ there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged”.

 (Arabic Version)