Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Agricultural Commodity Prices Remain Flat
Agricultural commodity prices remained fairly stable in the week ended December 17. Prices of gari, cassava (fresh tubers), groundnuts, rice, among others, registered average price drops.
The average price per kilo in seven markets for groundnuts dropped from GHC1.84 a kilo in retail trading last week, to GHC1.83 a kilo in the week ended December 17. The wholesale average price of cassava dropped from GHC0.96 a kilo last week, to GHC0.93 a kilo in the week under review.
Esoko market watchers have reported that market activities had remained brisk, with no pointers to a significant shift in the dynamics.
“There are no major price movements of note. Market activities have remained mostly active as people try to stock up for the Christmas period. But, prices have not been affected by the increased demand, pointing to the fact that supply has been good for most commodities in this close season,” Esoko market watchers reported.
Overall, food and market analysts are hopeful that prices of commodities will remain stable to the end of the year. So far, most commodities have not shown any significant signs of price movement, either upwards or downwards.
The only commodity that has remained extremely unstable across most markets in the last three months has been tomato. In the week to December 17 for example, the wholesale and retail prices of tomato (cooking) in the Kumasi Central market dropped significantly registering a percentage decrease of 30 and 37 respectively. In the wholesale market, the price per kilo in the Kumasi Central Market was GHC0.87 a kilo, and in the retail market, the price was GHC1.05 a kilo.
Again, tomato price at the Agbogbloshie market recorded GHC 2.10 and GHC 1.90 in retail and wholesale trading in the week under review, registering a percentage drop of 11 and 12 respectively on last week’s closing price.
However, the Esoko Ghana Commodity Index- Retail (EGCI-R) closed the week at 3159 points and the wholesale index –EGCI-W, closed the week at 1203.
Source: Daily Graphic