Who could have ever imagined a less enthusiastic market in Christmas season? But such is the case at the popular Achimota and Dome market this festive season.
The market women were eager to vent their frustration about the low patronage of their products. “In fact this Christmas market is bad. People are not buying at all. Last year was far better than this year”, lamented, a market woman.
Many have attributed the low sales to the high cost of products on the market. A tomato seller had this to say about the high cost of tomatoes in the market, “if this is the tomatoes season and a box of tomatoes costs between GHC500 and GHC550 which is 100% more than the usual, that means next year the same box will cost between GHC 650 and GHC700”.
Similar frustration was shared by a maize seller at the Dome market. She explained how the high cost of maize pushes people away. one ‘olonka’ of maize has risen up to an unprecedented price of GHC 7.00 instead of the usual GHC4.00 or GHC 4.50 every December. She says it is due to high cost of farming and huge charges by drivers because of the poor road network.
Though the market is at its usual best with all kinds of products such as livestock and food products, the market women complained bitterly about low patronage and the effect this development can have on their families’ upkeep. They say this year’s sales have been worse ever as compared to the previous years.Whiles many of the traders were not too quick to pin the blame on the Akuffo Addo government, a few attributed the slow sales to economic hardship, lack of best farming practice, poor infrastructure and bad road network in the hinterlands which has led to post harvest loses with its resultant effect being the high cost of food products on the market.
A section of the traders have also expressed their worries over how importation duties have impacted negatively on their fish, goat, cow and chicken business.
Farmers who provide different services including Greenhouse farming and Agro-processing say the high commodity prices this December are due to general shortage of some foodstuffs on the market.
They attributed this to the unfavorable climate we experienced, and suggested that farmers should shift from the rain-fed type of agricultural practice to safeguard food security in the Country.
Farmers should adopt innovative farming strategies like irrigation in dry seasons and post-harvest management to ensure abundant foodstuffs
Traders were worried about commodity prices shooting up in the first quarter of 2018 if nothing is done about this situation.
