Esoko market watchers have reported that the price of wheat, which had increased significantly on the international market in the last two months- almost doubling at some point, has remained stable in the country, falling, albeit marginally in the Kumasi Central market. The price per kilo of the commodity dropped from GHC1.80 and GHC2.05 to GHC1.82 and GHC2.10 in wholesale and retail trading respectively, in the Kumasi Central market.
In most of the other Esoko monitored markets, the price of the commodity remained unchanged, from the previous week’s closing figure. Market watchers have also indicated that there is nothing to suggest that market traders are worried over any future prices movements, meaning that it should remain stable.
On the international scene also, it appears that the two-months’ upward surge in the commodity’s price, which had forced a managing director of the World Bank to issue a “price warning” is indeed a storm in a tea cup. Prices almost doubled in this period, due to a drought and heat wave in the Black Sea region, (declared to be over in Russia last week). It is estimated that the drought may have destroyed a quarter of the grain crop in the region and in fact led to a ban on exports.
In line with Esoko’s market watchers assessment last week that the global price increases were not enough to trigger any major effect on the world demand and supply of the commodity, an economist at the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (UN-FAO) has also stressed that indeed the world wheat price rises are not yet sufficient to trigger global food inflation. FAO economist and cereals analyst Abdolreza Abbassian in an interview with Reuters indicated that he expected wheat prices to remain high and volatile in the coming months but that they did not pose a threat of global inflation.
In the broader market price and activity assessment, Esoko monitored market price activity also showed that prices of commodities have remained fairly stable over the past few weeks. The price of tomatoes especially, which had registered significant price increases some few weeks back seems to have cooled off significantly, continuing the drop in the week to August 20.
In the Techiman market, wholesale and retail prices of tomatoes decreased from GHC0.42 and GHC0.59 respectively to GHC0.37 and GHC0.0.40. In percentage terms, this represented a 12 and 32 per cent drop on the closing price for the previous week.
The Esoko Ghana Commodity Index- Retail (EGCI-R) closed the week at 4118.86 with the Esoko Ghana Commodity Index- Wholesale (EGCI-W) closing the week at 1962.22.
