As Muslims prepare for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration scheduled for Friday, residents of Kaduna State have lamented the rising prices of food commodities in the state ahead of the Islamic festivity.
A survey conducted by Arewa Trust Weekly indicates that food prices have skyrocketed with traders blaming increase in dollar for foreign goods such as smuggled foreign rice and other food commodities.
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Moshood Adeleke, who owns a provision shop close to the Kaduna central market, said the increase was not due to the forthcoming Sallah but the rise of dollar which also affected locally produced food items.
Adeleke said with the price of foreign rice on the increase, local producers of rice and marketers had inflated the price of their commodities due to high demand. “Right now, a 50kg bag of foreign rice costs between N25, 500 and N27, 000 while the local variety goes for N24, 000. I get my supplies from a company in Kebbi State, Big Bull. The official price for a 50kg is 22, 000. Distributors sell at 23,000 while retailers sell at 23,500 or 24,000. But before now, the company price was 19,500 while we sold at 22, 000,” he said.
According to him, for cooking oil, the leading brands such as Kings oil and Emperor are on the rise and they sell for N14, 500 and N14, 000 respectively. “Nigerians are used to foreign varieties; despite the closure of border, people still demand for the commodities. This fuels smuggling because they are all available in the markets,” he said.
Ibrahim Adam, a grain dealer at the Bakin Dogo market, said he had to stop buying some commodities due to the increase; stating that a bag of maize that was N10, 000 now costs N17, 000. While lamenting on how the increase will incapacitate some families during the Sallah festivity, he urged governments to intervene as hoarding was responsible for the price hike.
Our correspondent who also visited the vegetable section of the market observed that the situation is the same as the price of perishable goods such as tomatoes, pepper and onions had soared.
Yau Umar, a dealer in tomatoes, however said it is common for tomatoes to be expensive during the raining season because too much rainfall deteriorates the commodity. According to him, “There is no increase in price; rather, it has decreased. At this time of the year, tomatoes from Kaduna State are not available, so the ones we are selling are brought from neighbouring states and the price can be from N30, 000 but presently, it is about N15, 000.”
He explained that prices are down because there is no money in circulation and tomatoes, being perishable, could rotten if farmers or traders hold on to it for long.
Decrying the soaring price of food commodities, a resident of Kaduna, Khadija Aliyu, lamented that a major of local rice which was sold for N450 is now N750 and that of beans rose to N350 from N200. “We are living in a troubling time when food staples are getting high to purchase. I pray for the situation to get better, but for me, Sallah will not be accompanied with food to share,” she said.
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