Food Prices Go Up

PRICES OF foodstuff keep going up high and as a result market women are very worried as to how the trend is going. Today�s current market survey reveals that food prices are soaring with each passing day in Accra and other market centers. The effect of inflation figures on the prices of food items have led to fears among Ghanaians that prices of food items will further go up. A visit to some notable markets in the capital-Kaneshie and Makola markets in Accra revealed that high prices of foodstuff greet customers who go there to shop. At Kaneshie and Accra markets, customers complained about the prices of vegetable oil, cassava, flour, tomatoes, plantain, yam, garden eggs, and others, which they say have seen much increase. A trader, Theresa who spoke to DAILY HERITAGE expressed worry about the price hikes in foodstuff. According to her, when they go to purchase the items from the wholesale shops, in an hour later, that same item would go up again describing it as a big worry to them. �Every now and then, prices of items keep going up, there is nothing we can do about it, than just managing with the current increase. A bag of rice just last week was GH�120.00, but now it is GH�150.00. �Today if oil is GH�10.00, when you go back to buy it again, they will increase it to GH�15.00, so the prices can increase like 3 to 4 times a day and has become a big problem to us. �When you ask them, all they say is that, the dollar rate is high so they have no option than to increase theirs as well,� she cried. Another trader, Felicity, a tomato seller also lamented her problem to the paper saying that she goes all the way to Tuobodom, Techiman and Burkina Faso to buy boxes of tomatoes, just to get there and realized it has been increased. �Last week we bought a box of tomatoes for GH�350.00, but just this week it has been increased to GH�500.00 and when we came to the market, people were not buying at all, business is not going the way we expect because the price we brought from that place was too expensive and as a result our customers are avoiding us. �They say it is very expensive and so we have no choice than to sell it the previous price which was GH�350.00 which in the long run goes against us because we are losing,� she revealed. Gifty, a trader who also shared her sentiments said �indeed foodstuffs have gone up high, just last week I went to buy a bag of garden eggs for GH�40.00 and just this Saturday, I went back just to be told it has increased to GH�80.00. It is expensive. �Because of that our customers do not come as they used to. One bucket of garden eggs is GH�5.00, but at first it was GH�3.00 and so they always complain,� the trader lamented. They are, therefore, calling on the farmers to reduce the prices of foodstuffs in the village for them so as to purchase more to make their businesses grow. The paper, however, gathered that a box of red fish which was sold at GH�135.00 cedis is now GH�140.00.