The Herald has gathered that, the shortage of Cassava, has propel the price of the common staple food popularly known as ‘Gari’ in the country.
Gari, which is a byproduct of Cassava and popular among students in the various boarding schools across the country, is now selling for nine Ghana Cedis for a tin (Olonka).
A tin (Olonka) of the whitish grain or substance, is now being sold at nine Cedis (GH¢9).
This has led to many food vendors particularly ‘Wakye’ sellers to reduce the quantity of the Gari; they sell for fifty Pesewas, since it will be out of place for them to raise the price to one Ghana Cedis.
The Herald has learnt that, because of the acute shortage of Cassava, some dealers of the commodity are importing the staple Gari food from neighbouring Togo.
Information gathered indicate that there was a massive struggle for the commodity from the neighbouring Togo.
According to the information, the dealers importing the grain from Togo, are cashing in on the shortage in the country to create some scarcity in the sale of the product.
Among other reasons assigned for the shortage of Cassava, The Herald can report, was the purchase of the products by Guinness Ghana Limited for the production of a beer beverage called Ruut Extra (known in the local parlance as Bankyi).
These developments coupled with the perennial drought that hit the country, has compounded the situation, hence the soaring price of the byproduct of the commodity in the last couple of weeks.
Already, the World Bank has warned the government over the inexorable drop of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which in 1991 stood at 65% and nosedived to 23 percent in 2012, representing reduction of 50%.
This report by the World Bank does not only reflect on cash crops like cocoa, coffee, oil palm, cashew and cotton, but also cassava which provides carbohydrate in most Ghanaian meals.
Cassava is used to prepare starch, ‘fufu’, ‘kokonte’, ‘banku’, ‘agbelikaaklo’ and ‘gari’.
Though cassava is one of the common crops in Ghana and easiest to cultivate, it is currently expensive and hard to come by. Its price on the market has doubled over the past few years. In 2013, a bag of 250 kilogram of cassava was sold at GHc25, GHc50 in 2014, GHc100 in 2015 and GHc200 in early 2016.
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