Koumassi market: semi-wholesale food distributors face soaring prices

At Koumassi market, semi-wholesale food traders, who buy from trucks arriving from inland and resell to retailers across several Abidjan districts, have been paying more since mid-September. A crate of tomatoes has risen from 12,000 to 20,000 FCFA and a 25-kilo sack of onions from 15,000 to 21,000 FCFA, according to five distributors met at dawn this Tuesday.

Trucks arrive between 3 and 5 a.m. and the lots are gone within hours. Distributors attribute the rise to scarcer deliveries after heavy rains in producing areas, and to transport costs passed on by wholesalers. To keep their customers, many are cutting their margins or splitting lots into half-crates.

Retailers in neighbouring markets, from Marcory to Port-Bouët, then pass these prices on at their stalls. Several distributors also say they lack the cash to buy a whole truckload and team up in twos or threes to share one. They expect prices to fall with the next harvests, without being able to say when.

What the creator verified this Tuesday: the purchase prices quoted by five distributors as trucks were unloaded, for tomatoes, onions and plantain. What remains to be confirmed: how deliveries evolve in the coming weeks and the actual effect on retail prices in other markets.