Sokoto yam sellers groan over high transport fare
Yam sellers in Sokoto Ramen Kura market depot are groaning over high cost of transportation and inadequate facilities to handle their goods.
“From Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State where we get the supply, we pay as high as N450,000 transportation fare to Sokoto for a trailer load of yam which cost over N2 million,” an official of the yam dealers association in the state, Alhaji Haruna Hassan, lamented.
He said altogether they spend over N3.5 million on a trailer load of yam.
Hassan recalled that two years ago, they paid only N900,000 and that the market was more favourable to them
The yam dealers’ association, consisting of 375 members, appealed to government to assist them by making transportation services available for them to convey yams to Sokoto.
Hassan also urged government to provide requisite facilities to save their commodity from perishing due to weather and glut.
“Yam is a perishable commodity, and we incur great loss from lack of storage facilities. It hardly lasts more than five days at the depot tubers while waiting for buyers. We need to fence our depot and have adequate facility that would protect our produce during rain and hot weather,” Hassan stated.
When Daily Trust visited the yam depot at Ramen Kura, a trailer load of the commodity was seen waiting for to be offloaded while heaps of varieties of yam were covered with lo9ng grasses waiting for buyers.
The business thrives at Ramen Kura depot from 8am-12 noon daily, and the prices fluctuate by day even as the market gets frequent supply of yams.
Yam comes in different sizes so also do the prices vary. A set of 100 pieces of big tubers of yam at the market cost N65,000-N85,000.
The yam sellers complained that at the Sokoto depot, they sometimes experienced glut which makes them to sell at lower price to avoid waste.
“For instance, sometimes, we are forced to sell the N65,000-N85,000 worth of yams at N50,000,” he explained.
Yam is noted to be in very high in supply in Sokoto from August to February.