Food costs are down, but consumers are still overpaying due to middlemen – Agriculture Minister
According to Ghana’s Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr. Bryan Acheampong, food costs have dropped dramatically in recent months.
He attributes this decrease to the government’s sensible policies, which he claims are generating great consequences.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Agric Fair at the Ministry’s premises in Accra, Dr. Acheampong said that while food prices have fallen, consumers continue to pay high rates in some cases due to blatant profiteering by middlemen. Agriculture
“We were able to reduce the price of maize by 50%.” It’s not only the maize. Prices for a variety of grains are falling. Maize that used to sell at the same time last year for GH300 for a 50kg bag is now GH148, with a maximum of GH150, representing a 50% decline in the price of maize.”
“But no one is talking about it because it doesn’t translate into the price of a kenkey ball.” “It means there’s someone in the middle pocketing the profit,” he explained.
Meanwhile, fresh research suggests that a lack of competition is producing unjust food costs for Ghanaian consumers, as retail prices climb substantially faster than wholesale prices.
Food products such as onions, gari, and sorghum have been identified as important markets of concern, and national authorities have been requested to investigate and intervene. Agriculture
Experts in Ghana and throughout the world are warning that during a food crisis, certain market actors are reaping record profits at the expense of overcharged consumers and underpaid farmers.
A new tool developed by consumer organizations has revealed the risk of unjust food prices in Ghana, which is caused by a lack of competition in national and global food supply chains.
The Fair Food Price Monitor warns that rising prices for Ghanaian consumers may be driven not just by causes such as increased fuel costs and currency depreciation but also by dominant market actors exploiting the crisis to raise prices unnecessarily.
The tool, developed by Consumers International (which represents consumers worldwide) and the Ghanaian organization Consumer Advocacy Centre (which is based at Laweh University College), uses data from sources such as the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to track the relationship between food prices at different stages of the supply chain in Ghana and to highlight areas where the government should investigate and act.
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