Prices of food items, groceries soar as traders and buyers complain

Prices of foodstuff and other items at the Kotokuraba Market in Cape Coast have increased sharply, compared to last year 2011, a survey by the Ghana News Agency has revealed.

Prices of items, like maize, groundnut, beans and millet have shot up from GH¢2.00, GH¢5.50, GH¢3.50 and GH¢2.50 per “olonka”,(a measuring tin) to GH¢3.00, GH¢7.50p, GH¢4.80 and GH¢3.50p respectively.

According to Madam Esi Atta, who trades in legumes and cereals are seasonal crops and the recent lack of rains had compounded the problem.

A bunch of plantain which formally sold at five and six Ghana Cedis is now selling at between GH¢10 and GH¢15 for large ones with the least cost of a medium size tuber of yam being GH¢4.00 compared to the previous price of GH¢2.50.

Aunty Abena, another trader, said a sack of cassava she was buying for about GH¢15.00 now sells at GH¢20.00 and was of the hope that prices will reduce when the rains set in.

Prices of tomatoes and eggs were however stable with onions selling very cheap, dropping from GH¢300 to GH¢90.

At the meat shop, a pound of both mutton and beef was selling for GH¢4.50p as compared to last year’s of GH¢4.00.

Prices of other items such as rice, oil and sugar have also gone up and traders expressed concern about the daily increases of such items.

When the GNA visited the market at around 10:00hrs on Tuesday, some traders were found sleeping behind their wares, due to the slow pace of business.

Some of the traders were hopeful that business would pick up soon while customers were also hopeful that items would be more affordable to help them because “times are hard”.

Source: GNA