By Regina Benneh
Sunyani, Aug. 22, GNA - The onion wholesale and retail traders in Sunyani say they are incurring huge losses because of rising cost, resulting from the inability of haulage trucks to convey vegetable from Niger through Burkina Faso to Ghana.
According to the traders the situation had been caused by the Niger military takeover and the closure of the borders and the dealers unable to bring the commodity to the country.
Consequently, both traders and consumers of the vegetable in response to a Ghana News Agency (GNA) market survey at the Bono Regional capital’s central market have appealed to the government to collaborate with the ECOWAS Commission to allow the free movement of goods and services.
In that sense, they hoped the haulage trucks loaded with onion could be brought into the country to prevent the continuous astronomical price of the vegetable in the nation’s various markets.
Madam Joyce Afriyie, an onion seller told the GNA, that a black v-shaped average size rubber container full of onion had increased from GhC100.00 to GhC170.00 for more than two weeks now.
She expressed the fear that if the situation was not changed for the better, the price might increase to almost GhC200.00 since a maxi-bag of the vegetable was now being bought at a wholesale price of more than GhC1,800.00 instead of GhC1000.00 previously and thus making it difficult for the traders to make profit out of sales.
“We may not have any option than to increase the price to any level that could not affect our business capitals because many of us borrowed from the banks and are paying interest at the end of every month,” Mad. Afriyie said.
Other traders and consumers the GNA spoke to expressed similar fears and concerns of skyrocketing price of the vegetable, saying that it could even affect prices of cooked food items because onion remained one of the main and indispensable spices in food preparation.
GNA