‘Transportation costs fueling high prices of food’
08 August 2022 |
2:43 am
Food vendors and transporters have identified logistics, higher costs of diesel, petrol and poor state of rural roads as some of the factors causing an abnormal rise in prices of food items
[FILES] Food market
Food vendors and transporters have identified logistics, higher costs of diesel, petrol and poor state of rural roads as some of the factors causing an abnormal rise in prices of food items.
Some transporters, who spoke with The Guardian, also said transportation cost between farm and market is extremely high due to the poor state of the road.
They explained that price of diesel has increased from about N250 per litre in 2021 to over N700 now, forcing transporters to increase their fares and charges.
Pump price of petrol, the transport associations also pointed out, has increased from about N97 in 2015 to about N180 or more, forcing up the landing costs of most food items.
Speaking with The Guardian, Mr Godwin Godwin, a bus driver at the Oshodi terminal, said there is food in rural and farming communities, but the cost of transporting them to cities and commercial centres is high.
To transport a bag of local rice from Lagos to Onitsha or vice versa costs about N4,000.
He added: “I could remember during the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan, transporting a bag of rice, beans or other accessories was about N500, but with the level of inflation now, I doubt if any customer will want to transport their food items to other states.”
As prices of food items and transportation fares continue to increase, staple foods like beans, rice, yam and garri, among others, have become nearly unaffordable to more Nigerians, and this has increased the number of hungry people in the country.
A food dealer Chukwuma Anumadu, said the prices of food items increase almost every two weeks as the processing companies try to stay afloat in business.
He said: “Our government needs to put things in order for the prices of items to reduce and get back to our good old days. The government should be able to tackle factors affecting food prices, like insecurity.
Our farmers are scared of going to the farm either to harvest crops or plant them because they are not sure of what might happen in the next minutes.”
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