Traders in the various markets in the capital have resorted to various strategies as they respond to the effects of last month’s petroleum price increments.
The traders' strategies, according to checks by the Graphic Business are in response to the surge in the prices of various goods which was induced by the January 4 petroleum price increments.
The Graphic Business realised that while some traders in the markets are costing their wares higher now than before and maintaining the quantities of those wares, some are doing the reverse, selling at the old prices but sliced the quantity of those same products downward as compared to their initial quantities prior to the increment.
A visit to the Kaneshie Central, Tema Station, and the Makola markets indicated that most of the traders who are into consumer goods, such as food vendors and those selling goods that do not have fixed quantities have reduced the quantity of those commodities but still sell at the initial prices.
The National Petroleum Authority, regulators of the nation’s petroleum industry on January 4 this year increased the ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel by 30 and 20 per cent respectively while citing the rising crude oil prices in the global market and the accumulating Tema Oil Refinery’s (TOR) debt as factors that necessitated the upward adjustment.
Following this, a gallon of gasoline (premium) moved up from GH¢5.26 to currently sell at GH¢6.84. That of diesel also moved up from GH¢5.31 to sell at GH¢6.91, while a kilogram of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) now sells at GH¢1.047 after the same quantity was initially sold at GH¢0.8381 prior to the increment.
These upward changes caused transport operators in the country to also adjust transport fares upward by 18 per cent across board.
As a result, the cost of transporting traders’ wares from wholesale destinations to their respective points also went up as the traders explained to this reporter.
Madam Elizabeth, a dealer in corn related products such as corn dough, gari and sugar at the Tema Station Lorry park said the wholesale prices of the products she deal in had risen following the increment.
According to her, the cost of transporting those goods to the market had also gone up causing her to reduce the quantity of the various commodities and in some cases, increase the prices.
A bag of maize, she said now sells at Gh¢ 80, a Gh ¢10 upward adjustment from its initial Gh¢70 price prior to the petroleum price increment, a situation she insisted caused her to reduce the quantity of corn dough offered at 50p.
The small alonka of gari which was sold at ninety pesewas now goes for one cedi with the price of the big alonka also stretching to two cedis from its initial price of one cedi eighty pesewas.
Though Madam Elizabeth thinks the stretch in transport fares had a direct response on prices of gari and maize, she also thought the seasonal nature of her commodities also had a hand in the price changes.
Seasonal commodities, she observed are subject to price flatuations depending on the time of the season and the nature of the harvest.
“Even if fuel prices increase, prices of seasonal commodities will still go up and come down”, Madam Elizabeth explained.
Mr Andrew Nartey, a patron of Madam Elizabeth’s corn dough also observed “the quantity of this one cedi corn dough has reduced. This, (then referring to a ball of corn dough in his possession) was sometime ago sold at fifty pesewas”.
The wholesale prices of rice had also gone up by an average of Gh¢10 which in effect induced retail prices of the various brands upward.
Though, most of the rice traders at the Tema Station Lorry park would not dismiss any direct effect of the petroleum price increases on the upward adjustments of rice prices, they insisted that the main cause of the price surge was due to taxes and the Ivoirian crisis.
According to Madam Akosua Ankah, a dealer in Uncle Sam, a brand of the Ricemaster mostly imported through Cote d’ Viore, a bag was initially selling at Gh¢ 13.50p but the crisis pulled it upward to currently sell at Gh¢15 per bag.
Prices of construction and manufacturing wares were also realised inching up following the increments.
Cement prices for instance went up by approximately Gh¢2 across the various dealers visited by the Graphic Business.
Though Ghana Cement Company (GHACEM), a major cement manufacturer in the country had not announced any price increases, most of the dealers told this reporter that the distributors who increased the prices cited last month’s fuel price increments as a factor.
Interestingly however, prices of fish and fish related products have also gone up despite the NPA's resolve to raise prices of premix fuel, a product used by fishermen for fishing, citing its economic implications on the fishing folks as the reason.
The price of sachet water, popularly called 'pure water' has also folded back to its normal five pesewas per one after it was sold at 10 pesewas in the early days of the increment.
No comments:
Post a Comment