| Home | Politics | Human Rights | Water | Economy | Education | Sci & Tech | Culture | Sport |
19 August, 2007
The prices of a kilo of pepper, which was 32 birr a kilo, is now about 60 birr a kilo. The price has increased by more than 200 percent in one year. Pepper sellers at Mercato say that the price hike was caused by scarcity.
Pepper on sale throughout the country has varieties, according to the seller, and, Mareko pepper, consumers' best choice, was not in the market at all. The other varieties like Agarfa, Birsheleko and Harar have all doubled in price.
According to one of the pepper sellers, following the increase in the price of pepper, sacks of pepper left in stores for long and whose quality is not fit for the market, are being brought out for sale.
The sellers say that the beneficiaries from the inflation are only farmers and that they are selling pepper not so that they can make profits but so that they won't lose customers. They say that due to the price at which they buy sacks of pepper from farmers, the cost of veranda rents and labor, they are making no profit from selling pepper.
Sellers at the market think the scarcity in the supply of pepper and consequently the price hike are caused by the heavy rainfall last year which might have destroyed chilis in the farms.
By Staff Reporter - Ethiopian Reporter