Tomato price remains high in Katsina

Tomato farmers in Katsina state have made fortunes in the just concluded Sallah celebrations.

Naturally, every year there seems to be an increase in the prices of certain commodities in the markets due to the festival, and this year the price of small basket of fresh tomato skyrocketed to N2,000 from N500 in Funtua and Sheme markets.

Ali Bello,28, is a tomato trader in Funtua market who said if not for the Sallah festivity last week , it will be hard for them to make such a brisk business in the rainy season.

“Normally tomato is expensive in the dry season when we are transporting it to the south, but in this season its demand and price are low; this Eid-el- kabir has indeed changed the trend due to the high demand by consumers where we sold a small basket at the rate of N2,000 instead of N500 a week before Sallah.” said Ali Bello.

He added that the development was purely in connection with the Sallah celebration as tomato was sufficiently available in the markets.

A tomato farmer from Mairuwa, Mal Saleh Abdu said they have made a lot of money last week unlike in the last fasting and Sallah periods when the commodity was completely scarce, a situation that made the consumers to resort to the use of dried tomato.

Abdulrahman Shehu Tsafe said he was not happy with the way traders and sometimes farmers are exploiting consumers during festive periods.