Food prices slashed as Turkey readies for local elections

Ankara, Turkey - Local authorities in Istanbul and Ankara began selling cut-price vegetables this week as Turkey battles inflationary pressures its leaders blamed on "food terrorism".The municipalities of the country's two largest cities offered staples of the Turkish diet at about half the price of those in stores and markets.The opening of 50 sales points in Istanbul and 15 in Ankara on Monday came after January's inflation figures showed the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks rose by 31 percent year-on-year.The move precedes important local elections on March 31. Of course, but the scale is marginal."Others point to the rising labour and transport costs, as well as recent floods that hit agriculture in Antalya, on Turkey's southern coast, as contributing to soaring food prices.At a distribution point in Sihhiye, central Ankara, shoppers queued in front of municipality tents on Monday, where they were limited to a few kilos of each product."I don't know if it is food terrorism but the prices in the markets are too much for me these days," mother-of-three, Handan Kececi, 49, said.