Posted on January, 25, 2019 at 11:11 am
By Halili Letea
Dar es Salaam. Consumers paid less to obtain food commodities in November, 2018, compared with the same month the preceding year, following the continuous decrease in markets prices.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Monthly Economic Review (MER) for Decemberhas shown that wholesale and retail prices of all major food crops were lower in November 2018 than those of the corresponding month in 2017, save for those of potatoes.
The review has indicated that maize and rice have recorded a large price decrease, followed by sorghum.
The wholesale price for a 100 kilo bag of maize was down by 20.4 per cent to an average price of Sh42,362.9 in November 2018 from Sh53,215.3 recorded in the same month in 2017, while rice prices decreased by 17.1 per cent to Sh153,802.1 from Sh185,165.7 in the period under review.
The report has also indicated that beans and sorghum prices experienced a decrease of 13.1 per cent and 5.0 per cent to an average price of Sh158,802.1 and Sh72,523.8 on November 2018 respectively from Sh182,822.0 and Sh76,360.4 recorded in the same period last year respectrively.
According to the report, finger millet prices dwindled by 8.6 per cent to Sh134,008.0 from Sh146,649 in November, last year.
However, round potatoes have experienced a large increase of 27.8 per cent. Potato prices were up to an average of Sh88,209.2 in October this year compare with Sh69,032.2 in the corresponding month last year. According to the ministry of Agriculture, the total area in the country planted with cereals was 8,638,771 hectares in 2017.
Maize covered 6,067,996 hectares, the largest portion of planted area, followed by rice (1,455,564 hectares), sorghum (835,042 hectares), bulrush millet (226,013 hectares), finger millet (32,364 hectares) and wheat (21,793 hectares).
Source: The Citizen