Food prices decrease except rice

Dar es Salaam. Annual wholesale prices for all major foodstuffs declined in April 2018 from prices recorded in the corresponding month in 2017, excluding rice.

According to economic monthly review published by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), only whole prices for rice increased by 10.1 per cent.

The price for rice increased from Sh177, 619.6 per bag of 100kg in April 2017, to Sh195, 545.6 per same package in the similar month of this year.

However, prices for other major food crops including maize, sorghum, finger millet, potatoes and beans went down.

For maize, a wholesale price went down by 59.8 per cent to Sh42, 662.3 per bag of 100kg in April 2018, while the same bag of maize was Sh106, 166.4 April last year.

The wholesale price for sorghum declined by 42.4 per cent to Sh76, 636.7 per bag of 100kg in April 2018 from Sh132, 964.9 recorded in April last year.

For potatoes, wholesale price dropped by 14.3 per cent to Sh69, 903.5 each bag of 100kg in April 2018,.

while the same package was Sh81, 556.4 in 2017.

Also, the wholesale price of finger millets went down by 18.7 per cent to Sh134, 750.6 per bag of 100kg, whereas same similar package of the commodity was Sh165, 817.8 in the previous year.

The economic review further showed that, wholesale price of beans declined by 6.6 per cent per bag of 100kg to Sh170, 814.2, while the same bag of beans was Sh182, 900.2 last year.