Price of garri falls in Enugu

The price of garri, a staple food in most Nigerian households, has dropped by about 22 per cent in many markets in Enugu.

A survey by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent in the city on Friday shows that a paint bucket of white garri dropped from N3,500 to N2,500.

Also, the price of a paint bucket of the yellow variety sells for between N3,500 and N3,200 as against N4,000 and N3,700, depending on the brand.

Some of the dealers attributed the development to the ongoing cassava harvest in some parts of the state.

A retailer at the New Market, Enugu, Mrs Nkechi Egbo, told NAN that a 100kg bag of white garri, which previously sold for N134,400, now goes for N105,000.

Egbo said that a 100kg bag of the yellow garri, which sold for N168,000 and N160,000, now sells for N142,000 and N147,000, respectively.

She further said that a milk cup of yellow garri that sold for N300 and N200 now goes for N250, N200 and N150 per cup.

Another retailer, who gave her name simply as Mama Ada, also attributed the drop in the price to high harvest in Ugbawka and Nara Communities in Nkanu East Local Government Council Areas.

She said that the price might further drop in the coming weeks as other communities in Enugu and Ebonyi states continue to harvest their last year’s cassava while planting new ones.

Meanwhile, a farmer, Mr Mathew Nwankwo, said the price of garri skyrocketed “because of the prices of other communities in the market and the high cost of cultivating cassava”.

According to Nwankwo, a farmer who sold garri will need to buy rice, beans and other commodities, which prices have doubled in the market.

“Aside this, we pay labourers N300 to prepare a ridge as against the previous N150.

“You will feed them twice a day and if you are farming in another person’s land, you also pay for the land.

“I live at Ugwuomu Nike and we pay for harvest, transportation, peeling, firewood, water, red oil to colour the garri as well as the people that fry it,” he said.

Nwankwo said that he bought cassava stems worth N40,000 for his 10 plots of land and that it was not enough.

“All these expenses contributed to the high cost of the commodity in the market,” he further said.

A teacher, Mrs Vivian Okoro, described the drop in the price of garri as a welcome development.

Okoro said that many families in the country were finding it extremely difficult to buy the commodity due to its high price.

She, however, urged the government at all levels to support farmers to make staple foods, such as rice, beans and garri, amongst others, affordable to ordinary Nigerians.