ABUJA RESIDENTS LAMENT SKYROCKETING PRICE OF TOMATOES.
... housewives resort to other alternatives.
Residents in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, say they have ditched tomatoes for their stews and other sauces as they could no longer bear the cost.
Speaking with newsmen, some of the residents, especially housewives, lamented the hike in the prices of tomatoes, noting that they have resorted to using garden eggplants and carrots in their stews.
Others maintained that they’ve also explored pumpkin, pawpaw, or traditional soups like white soup and palm fruit soup popularly called banga soup in place of tomato stew.
Also, a tomatoes retailer in Nyanya market in the FCT, Umar Adamu, posited that he had stopped retailing tomatoes for some days due to low patronage, stating that his customers were not “patronising him because of the high cost.”
However, the Chief Executive Officer, Abraks Farm Produce Nigeria Limited, Mrs Rukkaya Umar, has explained that the primary reason for the scarcity of tomatoes was the high cost of fertiliser, pointing out that many tomato farmers do not grow it because they cannot afford fertiliser, as fertiliser was critical to its growth.
Umar, added that reliance on seasonal farming was one of the reasons for the scarcity, adding that it was tomatoes off-season.
Credit: Punch Newspaper
