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Market Watch: No major price increases before festive season
Beef, the most favoured food during the festive season, is expected to increase in price during this period. Photo by Rachael Mabala.
Around this time as the festive season approaches, almost all commodity prices are still stable because of the high supply on the market.
It is only a few items such as onions that are out of season with high prices.
“At this time, the prices are still normal but we expect them to rise a week to Christmas because the farmers would have increased the prices, they are expecting that everybody will be shopping for foodstuffs during that time,” says Christine Agwena, a fruits seller in Nakasero Market.
Vegetables
Currently, a box of tomatoes in Nakasero Market costs Shs160,000 and a kilo at Shs2,000. Starting next week, a box of tomatoes is expected to rise to Shs230,000 yet a kilo will cost between Shs2,500 and Shs3,000.
Agwena says it is not only tomato prices that will go up but all items like carrots and other vegetables and fruits. Onions are now out of season, a sack costs Shs230,000 and a kilo is at Shs2,500. During the Christmas week, traders will be purchasing a sack of onions at Shs300,000 and a kilo will go for Shs3,000 or Shs3,500.
A sack of carrots now costs Shs120,000 and a kilo at Shs2,000 but towards Christmas, a sack could go as high as Shs150,000 and a kilo at Shs2,500.
In the mean time, Joseph Kamya Lule, a chicken dealer at Nakasero Market, says prices have not been raised yet because the demand is still low. For purchases by hotels and restaurants, the prices are reduced because they buy in big numbers.
Chicken and other fowls
Lule notes prices for chicken like broilers might not be hiked because many people have reared their chicken targeting Christmas time.
“For broilers, we might increase the prices a little, say, from Shs7,000 to Shs10,000, that’s if people do not hawk them around the streets like it’s usually done. But if chicken hawkers flood the streets, we will be forced to sell at the same price, I can’t sell at Shs10,000 yet the other is selling at say, Shs7,000 or Shs8,000,” he says.
Chicken prices are expected to rise according to the breed.
Broilers that cost Shs7,000 now will go for high as Shs10,000, off layers from Shs13,000 to Shs15,000, parent stock (big in size) from Shs30,000 to Shs35,000. Prices for ducks, which he says, are most consumed by Chinese, will rise from Shs15,000 to Shs25,000.
Lule adds that turkeys are one type of bird that people do not usually shop for, be it on normal or big days like Christmas.
“Turkeys are quite big birds that a small family can’t think of buying because of the size. In most cases, it is people with parties that buy them. A turkey goes for Shs80,000 and the price is expected to increase by Shs20,000 during Christmas,” he asserts.
However, for local chicken breed, Lule notes the price will be a little bit higher than any other breed because they are usually few on the market but with a high demand.
A cock that costs Shs30,000 will go to as high as Shs40,000 or Shs45,000. A hen that is now at Shs18,000 will cost Shs25,000 closer to Christmas.
Beef
“Because the market prices for most commodities are still favourable, it would be better for people who are likely to purchase things like chicken now before the prices are hiked,” Lule advises.
For beef, which most people will opt in the festive season still costs Shs8,000 a kilo. The price is expected to rise by Shs2,000 or up to Shs5,000 depending on the demand from customer as Brian Sserunjonji at Bbunga Market observes.
“Usually, we increase the prices of beef by a small percentage during Christmas but return to the normal prices after the season,” he says.
