Inside Nigeria
Food Blockade: Food Prices Dip as Traders Lament Inability to Sell
...As Bag of Onions Previously Sold For N35k Now Sells For N7k
Farmers and traders in Kano are lamenting as farm produce, which can’t be sent to the South due to the ongoing strike by sellers of cows and foodstuff, are now sold at prices beyond ridiculous.
Prices of farm produce have plummeted in the North even as the “food blockade” facilitated by the strike.
In a video shared by Daily Trust, the farmers and marketers at the Gun-Dutse onion market, Dawakin Kudu Local government Area of Kano State, were seen bemoaning the effect of the ongoing strike by the sellers of cows.
Trucks bringing foodstuff to the Southern parts of the country were turned back at the entry of Kwara State.
This strike is connected to an ultimatum given by the national leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to the Federal Government, which demanded compensation for the losses suffered by Northern traders in the recent mayhem at Shasha market in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The strike led to an increase in the price of food commodities in the South, but the prices are plummeting in the north.
According to a trustworthy source, farmers said before the protest, they usually transport a minimum of 20 trucks to the southern part of the country daily, but the strike has affected them badly.
The largest bag of onion, sold at N35,000 few weeks ago and as high as N70,000 during the onion scarcity last year, is now being sold for N7,000.
