Hoarders of grains have been identified as a major contributor to the current food inflation in the country. 

Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Commission (FCCPC), Tunji Bello, made the observation yesterday at a town hall meeting with industry captains, MSMEs, market leaders, farmers, transporters and service providers in Kano. 
  
In his remarks, he said the commission’s investigators discovered that some unscrupulous produce merchants were mopping up newly harvested grains, and stashing them in warehouses to create artificial scarcity and worsen the hunger in the land.
  
“Without caring for the consequences of their action on fellow countrymen and women, some of these unscrupulous actors go as far as taking some of the food items they had mopped up from the farmers, or the markets, and smuggling them across the borders to sell at a premium, thereby endangering our national food security,” he said.

Yesterday’s event was a sequel to the interactive sessions earlier hosted in Abuja and Lagos by FCCPC for stakeholders in the production and distribution chain in its renewed advocacy to curb anti-consumer practices across the federation. 
   
Bello solicited the cooperation of the Kano stakeholders to curb the unwholesome practice for the nation’s interest. The FCCPC boss also listed price fixing and the creation of artificial barriers in the form of entrance levies by market associations, among other unethical practices. 
 
Though the FCCP Act prescribes stiff penalties, ranging from heavy fines to jail terms for offenders, Bello told the Kano stakeholders that the commission chose to first explore dialogue in the “spirit of democracy.” 
 
“For instance, when the government assists the operators of public transportation with easy credits to convert their vehicles from petrol to relatively far cheaper CNG, we don’t expect them to charge the same fares as those who buy petrol,” he added.

ALSO, it cautioned traders against creating artificial scarcity of grains and other consumables items, adding that such illicit act contributes largely to food inflation in the country. 
   
Besides, the commission issued a strong warning to those described as market cartels, who fix and gauge prices of commodities to promote the needless high cost of commodities in the market.