The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has commenced fact-finding engagements with traders associations and marketers to determine factors responsible for the continuous hike in food prices.

The Director of Surveillance and Investigations of the FCCPC, Boladale Adeyinka, made this known at Masaka Village Market in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State on Friday, April 19, 2024.

Adeyinka said the mission was geared toward crashing the prices of food in the country.

She noted that the findings in the market showed that transportation costs from the farm to the market and multiple taxation were major reasons for the high cost of food in the markets.

She listed other factors contributing to the hike to include high cost of pesticides and insecurity.

Adeyinka said the FCCPC would develop a concise report of all the multiple taxes and advise the government on how to unlock, remove, or reduce the taxes.

The FCCPC official said: “This is a fact-finding mission, an investigative mission to gather information directly from the sources. The food price campaign continues.

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“We are here to come and find out from three levels of stakeholders market executives, sellers and consumers.

“This is a big market for direct food supply from the farms to the market so we wanted to see the value chain interacting with cost variables.

“We had a meeting with the market executives to find out if they are issuing levies, taxes, things that is added to the cost starting from the farmer to the sellers.”

On his part, the General Chairman of Masaka Market, Danlami Gimba, said transportation was the major cause of the hike in food prices.

Gimba appealed to the government to reduce the price of petrol to help reduce transportation cost which, he said, would help reduce the prices of food items.

Some traders, who spoke during the engagement, said the prices of their goods had tripled from their suppliers hence the reason for the hike of prices on consumers.

A yam dealer at the market, Naomi Zakari, disclosed that one trip of yam containing 100 tubers that was sold to them in Benue State for N15,000 is now being sold for N50,000.

She said the suppliers attributed the hike in the price to the high cost of pesticides, fertilisers, and transportation.

Zakaria, however, appealed to the Federal Government to reduce the price of fuel.

The Star