Prices of sweet potatoes fall as supply improves
What you need to know:
- A Kariakoo Market Corporation weekly commodity report shows that the wholesale price of a 100-kilo bag of sweet potatoes fell by a quarter to Sh75,000 on April 6, from that on March 28.
Dar es Salaam. Prices of sweet potatoes have eased.
A Kariakoo Market Corporation weekly commodity report shows that the wholesale price of a 100-kilo bag of sweet potatoes fell by a quarter to Sh75,000 on April 6, from that on March 28.
A kilo of the commodity was sold at Sh1,500 in retail, down from Sh2,000 during the same period.
Kariakoo Market Corporation planning and statistical officer Henry Rwejuna attributes the slowdown to increased supplies, following bumper harvests in parts of Dar es Salaam as well as Coast and Morogoro regions.
“There is a large supply of the sweet potatoes in the market,” he said.
He also said that after end of cassava harvests in December last year, farmers have shifted to growing sweet potatoes in Kilosa and Dumila in Morogoro, using irrigation methods. Ms Rehema Juma, a retailer of sweet potatoes at Ubungo-Darajani, said the prices would have fallen had middlemen not tried to push them up.
