Traders of staple food in Calabar, Cross River, have attributed the rising cost of food stuff to high cost of transportation and extortion by security agencies.
The traders spoke in Calabar on Tuesday and noted particularly that the Automotive Gas oil (Diesel) and Premium Motor Spirit (Fuel) have not been pocket friendly to transporters and have had to increase their fares as well.
The respondents also did not rule out the challenges of insecurity and bad roads as another reason for increase in prices of staple food.
A trader in Watt Market in Calabar, Alhaji Lawal Dalha, noted that the rise of diesel from an average of N350 to N800, it is not unexpected for increase in the cost of transportation.
Dalha also bemoaned the extortion by security agencies and insecurity as another in the cause of transporting goods as another reason for the increase in prices of food items in the State.
According to him, “Some food items in my shop were not produced in Calabar but from other states, while those that could be gotten from Cross River came from the hinterlands and need to be transported to Calabar.
“Sometimes when these transporters with goods get to Calabar and narrate their ordeal on our roads, you just pity them, the business is becoming more for the brave hearted and this tells on the prices.
“Most of their trucks are powered by diesel which is scarce and expensive today, their are also so many checkpoints on our roads that extort these transporters, not to talk of the fear of attacks, kidnapping and others.
”A bag of 50 kilogrammes of brown and white beans goes for N52,000 and N48,000 respectively, meanwhile they were sold for N50,000 and N45,000 in February this year,” she said.
Dalha said palm oil is sourced locally from Akpabuyo, Odukpani and other Local Government Areas in Cross River and transport to Calabar.
“20 litre of palm oil goes for N19,500, while earlier in the year, it was sold for N18,500,” he said.
Similarly, Adamu Ibrahim who sells tomatoes, said smaller basket, known as cameron basket, goes for N10,000 while Gboko basket goes for between N22,000 and N23,000, as against N8,000, N18,000 and N20,000 in February.
Ibrahim said a bag of onion now goes for N35,600, which earlier in the year was sold for N33,000, which change he attributed to market forces and availability.
For yam, Mrs Dorathy Ufot said an average size tuber of yam goes for between N1,500 and N1,700 in the market, even though it might be a little difficult to find.
“This is not yam season, what you see in the market now are old yams and they are expensive as we are still waiting for new yams to be harvested,” he said.
Meanwhile, another trader, Mr Timothy Una, has said that prices of some staple food have gone down as they are now in season.
Una who deals on rice and Garri said, said a bag of 50kg is presently sold for N22,000 while the same quantity was sold for between N23,000 and N24,000 around March.
Una said the price of garri has also gone down from about N11,000 to about N8,000 per basin because of the presence of other food items that could serve as alternative.
“Sweet potatoes and corn are now available in the market and are been sold at reduced price because they are in season,” he explained.
