Yes, the price of rice is going up. But so too are the prices of cooking oil and other items such as instant noodles.

Consumers who buy premium brands face the steepest increase, compared to those who pick products packaged by the supermarket chains.

The price of a 10kg bag of Royal Umbrella fragrant rice jumped 44 per cent - from $18.65 in March to $26.80 last month.

The house brand version of rice jumped too, but by less.

The FairPrice brand of fragrant rice, for example, increased from $5.75 to $6.50 per 5kg bag, an increase of 13 per cent.

Cooking oil has also become more expensive. The Knife brand of cooking oil jumped by 56 per cent - from $13.20 to $20.60 from March 1 to April 28.

Case's price checks covered eight major supermarket chains and looked at 21 essential items, including household products such as toilet rolls and baby diapers. The prices include the discounts and promotions at the time when checks were done.

This is the first of monthly price surveys which will be published on the Case website, www.case.org.sg.

Case president Yeo Guat Kwang said they would help the lower-income group on 'where to get food at the lowest possible price'.

Its survey showed that NTUC FairPrice had the highest number of cheapest items, ranging from shower foam and dishwashing detergent to canned pork luncheon meat and eggs.

The island's biggest supermarket chain with 80 stores, it is also the only one with uniform pricing across its outlets.

Jasons Marketplace at Raffles City has the lowest prices for only bread and salt, while Carrefour at Suntec City stocks the cheapest items for soap and diswashing detergent.

The prices of staple foods have been rising globally, driven by increasing demand from China and India and crop failures, among other things.

In Singapore, the Consumer Price Index rose 6.7 per cent in March compared with the same period last year. Food prices, which comprise 23 per cent of the index, rose 7.6 per cent.

Consumers can save money if they shopped around, Case said, noting that there were variations in prices across supermarkets, even for the same item.

The price of a 750ml bottle of Pantene Shampoo Hairfall Control can go from $8.50 at Sheng Siong supermarket in Tekka Mall to $12.80 in Jasons Marketplace at Raffles City.

A spokesman for the Cold Storage Group of Supermarkets, which oversees Cold Storage and Jasons Marketplace among others, said that their supermarkets 'cater to different segments of customers from locals to expatriates'.

Differential pricing of products is 'common among retailers worldwide' as each store has to take into account operating costs and rentals.

Nurse Loo Min Min, 29, is one consumer who compares prices at two or three stores before buying her groceries.

'I don't mind walking farther to compare prices at different supermarkets to get the cheapest products.'

limjess@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ZACK HE

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