Durban: As the price of cooking oil in South Africa rises, customers are panic buying.
According to retailer Oxford Supermarket, people were sending in car guards to purchase five litre sunflower oil on their behalf.
The retailer has since limited each customer to four bottles of the 5 litre oil.
Oxford owner Brett Latimer said: “We have stock for the next months, but if informal traders and shop traders come in and clean out the store, then there won't be enough for the ordinary customer.
"We had a situation where people were sending in car guards to buy oil for them," said Latimer.
He said their oil price remained the same – R149 for five litres.
"We want to honour our customers and keep the prices the same because this is stock that we have.
“However, the new cost prices for a 5 litre of oil is R190, so customers should brace for over R200.”
A spokesperson for Willowton Group, said the situation was very volatile and could change any time with the political situation in Europe.
He assured consumers there would always be cooking oil available in South Africa and there was no need to panic buy.
“Prices could rise to between R200 and R250 for 5 litres based on today’s international prices, but that’s today. This could change at any time and could come back quickly if the situation normalises.”
IOL