Rising rice prices are affecting businesses in Guinea-Bissau, with sales suspended due to a lack of customers and money.
This is the reality at Bissau’s central market, where you hear cries of “no business” and where there are few shoppers.
Those who appear, the “old people” who say “there is no money”, often “ask prices” and end up not buying, as Lusa Antonia da Silva Costa, a representative of women in this market, explained. .
“The increase in rice production has affected us all,” says a woman who sells vegetables and fruits and uses the money she earns to buy rice, the staple of the Guinean diet.
“If the price is exorbitant, we will not be able to buy because there is no money, no purchasing power. It affects us poor people, it affects us a lot,” he states.
The price of a 50-kilogram bag of rice, the best-selling rice in Guinea-Bissau, rose from 17,500 CFA francs (26 euros) to 21,500 (32 euros) following a government decision to stop subsidizing importing companies.
“This price is a pain and a headache for us, it’s a lot, we can’t buy it, we are starving, but very hungry,” says Antonia.
The seller asks how she is going to pay rent for the stall she has at the market even though she has no business. This is what he earns there to pay the bills and support his family.
The frustrating thing is that “nobody buys, the food spoils on the shelf, they have to throw it away, they don’t make money and still lose the money they invested.”
“How can I find money to buy more vegetables?” he asks.
To be able to sell, Nilsa Quintino Kabi lowers prices and loses money.
One day you take home two thousand (three euros), another thousand CFA francs (1.5 euros), pay 500 for transport and ask yourself: with what is left, what can you have at the newsstand the next day?
“They raised the price of rice because we depend on what we sell and if we don’t sell, we won’t be able to buy rice. We must save the money we earn to be able to buy rice,” he said.
The sellers are asking officials to help improve the situation and, until it improves, they are counting on the support of the family to cope with the situation.
Nilza makes it clear that despite the difficulties, “there is no shortage of food.”
The mother sells at another market, and “if one doesn’t sell, then the other sells and helps,” which prevents them from being left without food.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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