Florence Uwaeme
In recent times, people no longer visit the open market before getting their housewares, clothing, electronics or their daily or weekly supply of foodstuffs. The world is evolving and no one wants to be left behind.
People now shop whatever they want from online vendors: cooked food and foodstuffs inclusive. It saves them time, strength and peace of mind; although they pay a little more for this.
A visit to any market in Rivers state leaves you wondering why the prices of some things keep skyrocketing: Onion bulb, rice (Nigerian and foreign), fresh tomatoes, groundnut-oil, cabbage, green peas, green beans etc.
A paint of foreign rice that used to be sold for a thousand six hundred naira (1,600) two months ago is now sold for two thousand five hundred naira (2,500) while a paint of the Nigerian rice sold for about a thousand four hundred (1,400) naira now goes for two thousand naira (2,000).
One begins to wonder why the sudden rise in the price of rice. Could it be connected to the border closure in Nigeria or could it be linked to the approach of Christmas?
If making a pot of stew cost you a thousand naira, right now you need much more than that for the stew to last you a day or two.
Two months ago, four big sized pieces of fresh tomatoes cost around two hundred naira (200), today, that same size goes for four hundred naira (400). Most times the sizes you will see in the market will make you have a rethink on why you should use fresh tomatoes to make stew in the first place.
Garri is not left out in the struggle to outdo each other in price rise. A paint of garri (yellow) that used to be four hundred naira is now sold for five hundred and fifty naira. While the white garri that used to be three hundred naira per paint, is now four hundred naira.
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