The price of onion in major markets across Enugu has increased sharply even as some residents lament its scarcity in the metropolis, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
A market survey conducted by NAN on Saturday revealed that the price of the commodity had increased when compared to what was obtained a few months back.
The residents were lamenting the scarcity of commodity and its sudden hike in price.
The price of a bag of onions now sells for between N28,000 and N32,000 as against N12, 000 and N14, 500.
An onions seller at the Akwata Market, Mrs Gift Agu, attributed the increase in price of onion to its planting season.
“The scarcity of onion is not only experienced in Enugu but also where the commodity is largely produced.
“Places like Sokoto, Kano and Jos, where we buy them from, are experiencing the scarcity too, though not as much as we in the southern part of the country,” Agu said.
She said some months back, onion was sold for between N11, 500 and N14,500, irrespective of the states they were bought from.
Mrs Onyeka Onah, another onions trader at Garki market said that the price of onion would further increase as its season of abundance was gradually disappearing.
Mr Samson Ukoha, an onions seller at Mayor Market, said that onions sellers were made to pay for some charges aside the actual price of the commodity, whenever they bought from onions wholesalers.
Ukoha said that those charges included land fees, where the commodity was bought, the amount collected by the truck pushers and the transportation fare, adding that these had also attributed to the price increase.
He urged government to build storage facilities for traders so that perishable items such as onions could be preserved for its constant availability to customers all the year round.
Meanwhile, Mrs Chioma Ogbu, a civil servant lamented that N100 worth of onion could no longer be enough to cook a meal for her family due to its scarcity.
Ogbu said the scarcity of onions was an annual occurrence, adding that toward the end of every year, onions gradually disappeared from the market.
Mrs Julian Ikedife, a teacher said that government should have found a solution to the scarcity of the commodity to make it available at all times.
“Onions are always scarce immediately we enter the ember months and government is not providing any storage facilities for the produce to allow it to be available all year round in the market.
“Due to its nutritious value, government should create a means of making it available to avoid its scarcity,” she said.
(NAN)
