Markets experience different commodity price pattern

Covered markets by Esoko witnessed varying degrees of commodity price movements in the week ending February 25. Whereas some commodities enjoyed massive price drops, others enjoyed worrying levels of increases. Wheat prices continued the upward swings we reported the previous week, closing the week under review at an average wholesale per kilo price of GHC2.19, from the previous week’s closing price of GHC2.08. In retail trading, the commodity closed the week at an average price of GHC2.46 a kilo, from the previous week’s GHC2.31 a kilo. Esoko market watchers attributed the average price increases in covered markets to “shortages in markets with relatively strong demand”. The impact seems to have been huge.

In fact, retail price movement was very significant; whereas the commodity closed the week at a per kilo price of GHC3.60, in retail trading in Techiman, it closed the week at GHC0.71 a kilo in the Tamale market. Also, in some cases, even though the wholesale price of wheat had remained the same in some markets, in retail markets, there were marked differences. Esoko market watchers attributed the differentials to the “different demand and supply patterns in different markets”. At the back of the increase in the price of groundnut, millet and wheat, the Esoko Ghana Commodity index- Retail, (EGCI-R) closed the week at 3795 points from the previous week’s closing of 3520.

The Techiman market recorded a significant drop in the price of tomato (cooking) in both wholesale and retail trading. In wholesale trading the price of the commodity dropped from GHC1.08 a kilo the previous week to GHC 0.58 a kilo in the week to February 25, therefore, recording 46 per cent drop at the wholesale level and 45 per cent drop at the retail level. Esoko market watchers identified influx from Burkina Faso as the cause for this. The price of yam also dropped significantly in the Techiman market; 23 per cent in wholesale trading and 26 per cent in retail trading.

credit: Esoko