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Panic buying hits town: Food vendors, retailers buy to hoard
According to some food vendors and retailers The Mirror spoke to at Okaishie, Mallam, Kasoa, Ashalley Botwe, Dome, Spintex, Agblezaa, Adabraka, Kaneshie, Mallam Atta, Nima and Maamobi, prices of rice, oil, meat and provisions kept going up on a daily basis, making it difficult for them to transact their business smoothly.
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As a result, most of them who blamed the high prices of commodities on the fall of the cedi against the dollar said they resolved to buy items such as tin tomatoes, cooking oil, palm oil, rice, margarine, flour, sugar, beans and maize among others in bulk as every day came with new prices.
Last week for instance, a high increase in the price of cooking oil went viral on almost every social media platform. Twenty five litres of vegetable cooking oil which was selling at GH¢640 shot up to GH¢1,000, palm oil moved from GH¢55 a gallon to GH¢150, while a gallon of locally made coconut oil is selling between GH¢300 and GH¢450.
From last Saturday to Wednesday, October 26, 2022, wholesalers in cooking oil at Nima, Madina, Okaishie, Agbogbloshie and Kaneshie market had people queuing just to buy some gallons of oil to store before the Christmas prices further deepen their woes.
A visit to some wholesale shops in Accra showed that the prices were not uniform at that level. Every wholesaler seemed to have his/her own prices. The situation was the same at the malls.
For example, a two-litre bottle of sunflower oil was sold between GH¢65 and GH¢100 at some wholesale points depending on the brands. Some retailers were selling the same quantity between GH¢85 and GH¢150 with the explanation that the cost of transportation had also affected the items.
At some of the malls, the prices were often more than twice the price at the wholesale and retail shops on the open market. The reason they gave was the high cost of rent space at the mall, utilities and import taxes.
Currently, most of the shops at the malls and some supermarkets have decided to take off their price tags. Customers have to pick items and give them to the shop attendants to scan for the prices . The explanation given for this was that most of the items were imported and due to the dollar gaining power on a regular basis, the prices were not stable.
A food Vendor , Hajia Muni Adams, who cooked for sale in the morning and evening at Kanda told this reporter that “with GH¢1,000, I could buy bags of rice, beans, meat, fish, oil, tomatoes, onions and pepper in bulk to use weekly for my operations, but now with the same amount, it is impossible to shop for a day. This has affected the quantity of waakye and rice served to customers. I sell from GH¢5 upwards, boiled egg is GH¢2 while fried fish is between GH¢7 and GH¢20.”
A chop bar operator at Abossey Okai, Maame Nitriwaa,stated that she used to buy a cow, 10 goats, order dried fish and grasscutter from a supplier at the Adabraka fish market but things were now difficult.
“One big cow is going for about GH¢15,000 at Ashaiman, something that was around GH¢5,000. I get snails from Afram Plains now because of the transport fare. The prices have gone up so when we also cook , we are forced to sell one big snail at GH¢30 at least. The last time, I had to share the cost of the cow with a sister of mine who cooks for sale at Dansoman. We had to share the meat equally so I have decided to get some money to buy about three cows, slaughter and keep in my freezer for the coming weeks,” she said.
A caterer for corporate and social events, Zibel Mensah said last Monday, she put on hold all her businesses and went round with her driver from one market to another in Accra and Tema to buy things in bulk to store.
“I have some weddings and funerals to cater for in the coming weeks which I have already charged, so if I don’t buy most of the items now, I may have to top up with my own money to satisfy my clients. December is also coming and I will be catering for some corporate institutions as well, so I am buying all the things I will need for cooking, frying and baking to prevent further surprises by the market women out there,” she indicated.
A wholesaler of oil and tin tomatoes, Sandra Amponsah, said although business was booming, they were not making any profit.
“Every cedi we make goes into various taxes internally and we have to pay our manufacturers in dollars. As you know, the dollar is no longer stable so we are equally running at a loss since everything goes into offsetting our debts,” she noted.
A baker , Ashai Odoi,who supplies bread to shops, said the cost of margarine and flour kept soaring; therefore, she had decided to empty some of the rooms in her house to store some flour and buckets of margarine to cut cost.
“As you can see, bread is no longer food for the poor. The round ones we used to sell at GH¢2 is now GH ¢ 5. The big loaf which was going for GH¢ 5 is now GH¢17.
“We know it is expensive, but we can’t do anything about it because gas is equally expensive and that is what we use at our bakery. Until the government does something about the prices of goods in town, when they go up , we will also increase our prices. At the end of the day, the ordinary man suffers,” she stated.
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