Responding to the outrageous rise in prices of food, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, has said vendors intentionally increase prices of food to make excessive profit.
According to the Minister, food is not scarce in Ghana but vendors in most cities, especially, triple actual prices of food.
“We are not experiencing a food scarcity, and this is not the cause of the issue with the high cost of food. There is enough of stock and corn not even for this year, this year’s harvest is still to arrive, we are talking about leftover last year’s harvests…You go to the producing regions, and you will see precisely what I am talking about”, he said.
A local person also added that there is price hikes of baskets of tomatoes when they get to the cities like Kumasi.
“The problem is, you go and purchase, for example, a basket of tomatoes for 150, and by the time it gets to Kumasi, it suddenly becomes 400, so there is some profiteering going on,” said a local.
To prove his post, the minister added that even neighboring countries fall on Ghana for food supply.
“Our neighbors throughout West Africa are now coming to Ghana as the bread basket to select our surpluses,” – Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto