Formulate consumer protection, marketplace competition laws to deal with unfair pricing – Panellists
Panellists at a forum on food inflation in Accra have called for the promulgation of consumer protection and marketplace competition laws to deal with unfair pricing of food in the country.
They further advocated the introduction of a weight measurement system to check the discretion of market queens and retailers in determining prices of food.
The panel included Professor Goski Alabi, Dean of the Centre for International Education and Collaboration, University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Edward Kareweh, General Secretary of the General Agriculture Workers’ Union (GAWU), Dr Charles Nyaaba, Executive Director, Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and Miriam Doe, Consumer Advocacy Centre of Laweh University College.
The forum forms part of a study undertaken into factors accounting for rising food prices in Ghana by Consumers International, a global membership organisation for consumer groups, in partnership with the Consumer Advocacy Centre based in Laweh University College.
According to Prof. Alabi, Ghanaian consumers, had since January last year, been exposed to soaring food prices despite reports of increased yield by farmers.
She said, the absence of proper weight and measurement system for food had created the room for foodstuff aggregators to “rip off farmers and consumers to maximise their profits.”
She noted that a Fair Food Price Monitor showed that for several important food items, retail/consumer prices rose substantially faster than wholesale/market prices mainly due to monopoly by market queens and retailers who control pricing at the various markets.
“For example, between January 2022 and July 2023, the retail price of onions increased by 42.4 per cent while the wholesale price rose by just 18.1 per cent in the same period.
The retail price of gari grew by 77 per cent compared to a 63 per cent rise in wholesale prices; and an increase of just 46.4 per cent in the wholesale price of cassava, gari’s basic ingredient. The retail price of sorghum increased by 117.9 per cent while the wholesale price increased by 100.6 per cent,” she stated.
Prof. Alabi explained that the data gathered from the monitor showed that while costs were increasing for all market actors, especially as a result of rising fuel cost and weakening exchange rate, consumers were bearing an unfair and excessive burden.
The situation, she said, required a comprehensive law that establishes a competition authority to tackle unfair or anti-competitive pricing practices, such as price gouging and price fixing.
Prof. Alabi urged the Ministry of Trade and Industry as well as the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) to open up the marketplace for all who want to sell to stop the monopoly of market queens and urgently design a weight and measurement system for implementation.
On his part, Mr Kareweh alluded hike in food prices to pricing being dictated by market forces in the absence of a pricing governance structure.
This, he explained, had been enabled by policies focusing only on increasing food production to the neglect of food storage, transportation, among others.
He called on government to implement solutions to the challenges faced by farmers in the area of storage and transportation to protect them from exploitation.
The Executive Director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Charles Nyaaba, urged the government to develop food houses to deal with supply challenges that had ensured monopoly and dominance of retailers in food sales.
He further called on the government to design policies that enabled farmers to access financial support with low interest rate to be able to participate in the supply value chain.
On her part, Ms Doe urged for improved road networks to markets to enable more participants in the market system.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
