Traders at the Agblogbloshie yam and onion markets have been compelled to reduce the prices of their items due to the impact of COVID-19.
The traders who say they have lost thousands of cedis also attribute the development to low patronage and the rate at which their goods are perishing.
Citi News’ Nana Tuffour Boateng who was at the Agblogbloshie market reported that the sellers are lamenting the impact of the Coronavirus on their businesses.
The organizer of the onion traders noted that, “the goods are scarce because of the closure of the border. Before the outbreak, we bought one bag at GHS450 but now we are selling between GHS220 and GHS 250 because of low patronage. So the price has decreased and currently, we are running at a loss.”
On his part, Daniel Lamjor, the Assistant Disciplinary Committee Chairman of the Konkomba Yam Producers and Marketing Society also added his voice stating that most of their food items are going bad because the number of customers has reduced.
“Look at our yams, they are getting rotten. The situation is worsening and we cannot even sell. Today we counted 500 tubers of yam but since morning not even a single person has bought one. So really, Coronavirus has affected us more. Before the outbreak, the big size of ‘pona’ was around GHS10 to GHS15 but this time around, you can’t like that because they are getting rotten.”
Food prices to keep rising due to impact of COVID-19 – Esoko
Meanwhile, commodity price survey service company, Esoko, has predicted that the prices of food items will continue to rise in the coming weeks due to the impact of COVID-19 on supply and production of some commodities.
This is premised on the fact that for the post lockdown period, two of the major staple foodstuff, cassava and maize recorded an increase in prices across some markets surveyed in the country.
Content Manager for Esoko, Francis Danso Adjei explained the factors accounting for the rise in prices for the period.
“If there is too much rain, it spoils the cassava; within the month of April, we didn’t have a lot of rains to let the farmers uproot and sell the cassava. For the same month too, some markets also regulated how traders plied or how consumers go there to trade,” he remarked.
Esoko’s survey
An analysis by Esoko which surveyed seven markets across Ghana, showed that the price of a 91kg of cassava recorded the highest increase of 28.84% to record 124 cedis in April 2020, compared to the previous month [March].
This was followed by cooking tomato and medium size of the ‘pona’ variety of yam.
A 72kg crate and 100 tubers of tomato and yam sold for 826 and 815 cedis respectively.
Maize, followed with its price increasing by 18.11%; to record 164 cedis for a 100kg bag.
On the projections for the next month, Esoko says it expects prices to rise and this Francis Danso Adjei largely attributes to the possible impact of the restricted movements on markets.
“We are still not clear in our minds what is the way forward, and traders are also taking advantage of some of these things and adjusting prices. We are still in the offseason coupled with COVID-19, we are still expecting that prices increase in May as well,” he emphasized.