Yam and potato prices are soaring in Bauchi, amid increasing demand occasioned by the Ramadan fast.
A check by the News of Nigeria at the Muda Lawal market on Wednesday showed that prices had shot up by about 25 per cent in the last five days.
Grocery items, especially tubers and fruitst are witnessing significant price hikes due to high demand, supply chain constraints and climate-driven crop failure.
A 50 kilogramme bag of Irish potatoes was sold for N80,000, and 100 tubers of yam sold for N300,000, as against its old price of N65,000, and N250,000, respectively.
A 25kg bag of sweet potatoes goes for N30,000 as against its previous price of N15,000, before the fasting period.
Traders at the market attributed the price hikes to high demand of the produce amidst low supply.
A trader, Saminu Sani said that yam and potato prices had shown a sprawling increase due to high demand in the last five days.
“The price of yam and sweet potato is going up because of high demand even from the point of supply to Bauchi,” he said.
Abdullahi Jarma, another trader, however, predicted that prices of fruits and perishable produce would further go down in view of the improvement in seasonal supply.
“This season, vegetables are plentiful, so prices are likely to go down drastically,” he said.
Ms Hajara Yakubu, a resident, said that consumers were exposed to difficulties due to exorbitant prices at the market.
She blamed the traders for the unilateral hike in prices to exploit consumers, lamenting that many families could not afford the commodities.
“It is difficult to use them this Ramadan because of the price hike, so I dropped them from my shopping menu,” she said.
Also, Dr Abubakar Sadiq, an economist, attributed the price hikes to the off-season scarcity of yam, Irish and sweet potatoes.
He advised traders and farmers to ensure effective planning and good management to cope with high demand periods such as Ramadan fast and festivities.
