Food prices record significant increases in 4th quarter of 2021
Most markets monitored across Ghana have recorded significant increases in food prices in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
28.1% hike in food prices globally
The situation in Ghana reflects global food price increases as the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices, averaged 125.7 points – a 28.1% increase in 2021 over 2020.
0.37% increase in food inflation
On the average, food inflation increased by a 0.37 percentage point over the national inflation in fourth quarter of 2021.
Food inflation 1.53% higher than national inflation
Also, food inflation increased by 1.53 percentage points on the average, over the national inflation in the third quarter of 2021.
These are contained in the seventh edition of the Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System (FSNMS) survey report carried out in 60 identified food insecure districts.
Pragmatic policies to check further price increases
The report recommended that MoFA closely monitor the current increases in commodity price trends of the major staples and inform government to put in place pragmatic policies to check further price increases, especially during the lean season.
Households and food sufficiency
Despite these increases, 92.7% of households surveyed are food secure and moderately food insecure with only 211 (7.4%) severely food insecure.
3,011 households surveyed
The Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System (FSNMS) surveyed 3,011 households across all 16 regions in the country.
2,099 (69.7%) of households food secure
Out of the number, 2,099 (representing 69.7%) was food secure, which means they fall within the acceptable food consumption group.
These are households that consume staples and vegetables every day, frequently accompanied by oil and pulses, and occasionally meat, fish and dairy.
691 (23%) of households moderately food insecure
Some 691 respondents (representing 23%) were moderately food insecure.
These households consume staples and vegetables every day, accompanied by oil and pulses a few times a week.
211 (7.4%) severely food insecure
However, 211 respondents (which constitute 7.4%) are severely food insecure.
This refers to households that are not consuming staples and vegetables every day and never or very seldom consume protein-rich food such as meat and dairy.
Significant commodity price increase in 4th quarter
Generally, the report said most of the markets monitored recorded a significant increase in prices of commodities in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
The price of maize in most key markets observed an upward trend.
Prices of maize more than doubled
During the fourth quarter, prices more than doubled in Kumasi (149.32%), Goaso (136.12%), Sunyani (149.26%), Wa (103.30%), Koforidua (129.67%) and Tamale (116.79%).
Price of maize dropped 12.14% in Oti Region
With the exception of Nkwanta in the Oti Region, where the price of maize dropped by 12.14%, prices in other markets rose significantly.The survey report said imported perfumed rice experienced a mix of normal, above normal and below normal price fluctuations.
Imported perfumed rice up 37.13% at Sefwi-Wiawso
Most of the markets monitored recorded an increase in the price of local perfumed rice.
The price increases ranged from 3.70% for Techiman to 37.13% for Sefwi-Wiawso.
Prices declined in 5 markets up to 23.02%
Meanwhile, five markets observed a decline in prices, with Koforidua recording the sharpest decline of 23.02%.
2.69% price increase at Ejura
Ejura recorded a marginal price increase of 2.69%, the lowest among markets surveyed.
Price of imported rice drop at Nkwanta market
Nkwanta, however, was the only market that saw a drop in the price of the commodity.
103.67% rise in the price of plantain at Nkwanta market
Meanwhile, in the same Nkwanta market, the price of plantain doubled at a rate of 103.67%, the highest change recorded for the commodity.
2.28% increase in the price of plantain in Koforidua
In Koforidua, however, the change in price was very marginal, hitting 2.28%.
Price of plantain dropped big at Sefwi-Wiawso, Goaso
On the other hand, the price of the commodity experienced a decline of 73.67% at Sefwi-Wiawso, followed by Goaso at 35.81%.
These two markets are located in districts that produce large quantities of plantain and that could have accounted for the lower prices.
Cassava prices increased by 52.02% at Agbogbloshie
Cassava prices increased by 52.02%, 117.88% and 10.17% at Agbogbloshie,
Sefwi-Wiawso and Ho respectively.
Marginal price changes of cassava in Wa and Takoradi
Meanwhile, marginal price changes were recorded in Wa – 3.96% and Takoradi – 0.40%.
Cassava prices decline in remaining markets
The rest of the markets, however, witnessed decline which may be attributed to increase supplies in the markets, as harvesting was being done during the period under review.
Severely food insecure households in 4 regions
The survey further revealed that severely food insecure households were mostly from the Northern, Ashanti, Savannah and Greater Accra regions.
Moderately food insecure households in 3 regions
Moderately food insecure households mostly came from the Northern, Ashanti and Savannah regions.
93.80% of severely food insecure households were male-headed households
An overwhelming majority – 93.80% of the households that were severely food insecure were male-headed households, while (6.20%) were female-headed households.
Coping strategy
Out of the total number of 3,011 households that responded to the survey, 77.80% indicated that they did not employ any coping strategy during the quarter.
On the other hand, 22.20% of the households indicated that they adopted some coping strategies to deal with lack of food or money to buy food during the quarter, and these were mostly households within poor and borderline food consumption groups.
These strategies include relying on less preferred or less expensive foods, borrowing from relatives and friends, limiting or reducing the portion or size of meals, restricting consumption of adults for the benefit of children and reducing the number of meals eaten in a day.
Sources of food
Purchasing of food from the market with cash, subsistence production and credit of food from the market remained the three main sources of food for the majority of the households interviewed.
72.40% depend on own production
About 26.34% of the households indicated that they purchased their cereals/tubers from the market with cash, while 72.40% depended on their own production.
Buying with cash
The study further revealed that households mainly got their sugar (69.78%), milk (95.95%), legumes (41.38%), fruits (61.18%) and vegetables (63.90%) from the market with cash.
Novel govt programmes
The government rolled out novel programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), One District One Factory (1D1F) and formalisation of the formal sector, among others, to make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality.
Harvesting late maturing crops
The report said the fourth quarter of 2021 was characterised by the harvesting of the late maturing crops, namely sorghum, millet and yam in the northern sector and minor season maize in the forest, transitional and coastal savannah agro-ecological zones.
Market supply of grains increased
Domestic food production, therefore, continued to improve tremendously as market supply of grains increased and prices of some commodities began to decrease, contributing to household food access and consumption.
Overall, cereal production for the 2021/2022 cropping season is expected to increase by 15.7% over the previous cropping season (2020/2021).
Similarly, the production of roots and tubers, including plantain and legumes, are also estimated to increase by 8.4% and 10.7% respectively.
This can be attributed to the favourable rains experienced in the northern sector and during the minor planting season in most parts of the country.
Household food consumption patterns remained largely acceptable as in the last three quarters.
Global situation
The Cereal Price Index also decreased 0.6 per cent for the full year; however, it reached its highest annual level since 2012, rising 27.2 per cent.
The biggest gainers were maize, up 44.1 per cent; and wheat, gaining 31.3 per cent. One of the world’s other key staple foods, rice, lost four per cent.
Oil and sugar
The Vegetable Oil Price Index declined 3.3 per cent in December due to lower global import demand that may be linked to concerns over the impact of rising COVID-19 cases, which have led to delays in the supply chain.
For the year as a whole, the Oil Index reached an all-time high, increasing 65.8 per cent compared with 2020.
Another key staple, sugar, dropped by 3.1 per cent last month from November, reaching a five-month low.
FAO analysts said this shows concerns over the impact of the Omicron variant on global demand, as well as a weaker Brazilian Real, combined with lower ethanol prices.
For the year as a whole, the Sugar Price Index rose 29.8 per cent, reaching its highest level since 2016.
Meat and dairy
The Meat Price Index was “broadly stable” in December but rose 12.7 per cent through the year as a whole.
Dairy was the only category where prices increased in the last month of the year, rising 1.8 per cent on November, mostly because of lower milk production in Western Europe and Oceania.
Cheese prices declined marginally last month, but for the year overall, the Dairy Price Index averaged 16.9 per cent higher than 2020.
The Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System (FSNMS) survey is jointly released by Statistics, Research and Information Directorate (SRID) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Nutrition Department of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) with financial and technical support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The survey plays an important role in identifying, analysing, and addressing the conditions that give rise to food insecurity and undernourishment.
The system provides the necessary information to decision makers for building sound policies that will alleviate the conditions of food insecure districts to recover from their canker.
The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is a measure of dietary diversity, food frequency and the relative nutritional importance of the food consumed.
A high FCS increases the probability that a household’s food intake is adequate.
The FCS is a good proxy for the current food security status and is highly correlated with other food security proxy indicators, including coping strategies and income.
The Household Food Consumption Score (FCS) is associated with household food access – and is, therefore, used as a proxy for household food
security.
The FCS is designed to reflect the quantity and quality of people’s diets.
The FCS is used to classify households into three groups: poor, borderline or acceptable food consumption.
These food consumption groups aggregate households with similar dietary patterns – in terms of frequency of consumption and diversity – and access to food.
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Real Estate business continues to grow in leaps and bounds with the increasing demand for places of residence by members of the high-class in society.
The industry goes a long way to boost different levers of the economy from importation of building materials through to local production of others and the use of local human resource in the building process.
For a company like Jannah Villas, a new real estate and property management outfit, there is the increasing need to continue to build alliances and consolidate the gains that the industry has chalked over the years despite existing economic challenges.
Jannah Villas, a real estate company, recently unveiled a 60-bedroom apartment hotel at Adentan in Accra.
Speaking at the launch of the hotel apartments at a ceremony at Adentan in Accra on Saturday, the Board Chairman of the company, Osman Barrie, said the facility is expected to provide a serene home-like apartment hotel environment different from the usual hotel facilities available in the hospitality industry in Ghana.
He said the hotel apartments would in addition afford guests a unique ambiance for a short or extended stay from home with their families as well.
“There are bed and breakfast studio apartments suitable for groups, families and friends that need privacy while on vacation or short stay, with access to a swimming pool, play area and outdoor kitchen,” he added.
Jannah Villas, located a few kilometres from the West Africa Senior High School at Adentan, has a fully furnished two bedroom apartments, restaurant, fitness centre, swimming pool, conference hall and event space.
Hawa Suleiman, a senior official had this to say: “Jannah means heaven in Arabic and that is the experience that we look to giving our clients and patrons.
“Additionally, we have a unique proposition in the form of pro-African fittings and furnishing where we prioritize for instance bamboo and African wood to replace some steel fittings. Ours, is to create that African and cosmopolitan feel, call it an Afro-politan experience for clients.”
Shelter and its importance
Shelter is an important part of life, an importance emphasized by the role of accommodation on the Abraham Maslow Theory of Needs.
Shelter is a safety need according to Maslow’s theory and recent moves by government with the rent policy, National Rental Assistance Scheme, shows that government is keen on seeing to quality accommodation and safety of citizens.
- VALCO workers asking for dollar indexed salaries untenable – 4 November 2022
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Business
She quits insurance sales manager job to become poultry farmer
The story of Hannah Aidoo, who holds master’s degree in economics
Growing up in a farming home, Hannah Aidoo defies all odds to venture into agriculture business to support her education and life.
The young ambitious lady took up this career eight years ago and has since employed other women and young people on her poultry farm.
As the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of H A farms based in Mankessim in the Central Region, she produces a range of nutritious and reasonably priced food items, including eggs, poultry, snails, catfish, vegetables, and food crops.
According to her, she works to produce these proteins to help her neighborhood and the nation as a whole while also keeping the health of the nation in mind.
In the last five years, Hannah has employed five persons, comprising three females and two males.
How the journey started
With a Bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness Management and a Master’s in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), she decided to start a poultry farm in 2017.
She revealed that she had previously established a fresh yoghurt business in 2015 but was unable to maintain it owing to a lack of funding and rolling power outages popularly called dumsor.
“As a result of that, I chose to accept an offer as a salesperson in 2015 with an insurance firm to make some commission,” she explained.
Hannah worked extremely hard and rose to the position of sales manager.
Through these periods of her life, she disclosed that she saved part of her commission each month to start her business in the future.
It was at this point that Hannah decided to launch her poultry business.
She mentioned that at that time, fresh chicken and eggs were in high demand in her neighborhood.
In light of that, she stated, “I decided to start planning, preparing for, and building my poultry house.”
By the beginning of 2018, she constructed a 300-housing capacity facility and ordered her first batch of 350 layers which arrived in August 2018.
Despite farming being challenging and time-consuming, she was able to increase capacity to 600 layers.
For the sake of health-conscious Ghanaians, she added, “We are currently building a 2,000 housing capacity to help us to produce more healthy and economical eggs and meats.”
Hannah confirms that life as a poultry farmer is exciting aside few challenges in the system.
Challenges as a farmer
The CEO of H.A. Farms told this newspaper that money has been her biggest issue since she started because poultry requires a lot of labour and resources.
According to her, attempts to obtain loans from certain financial institutions had been unsuccessful due to their exorbitant interest rates and her inability to provide the necessary collateral security required.
Hannah noted that despite all the biosecurity precautions she has taken, some investors still view the poultry industry as a high-risk sector to invest in.
She added that her expansion plans have been constrained by the ongoing increase in the cost inputs, particularly feed, day-old chicks, and medications, as well as the fact that her purchasing power and funds have been declining daily.
“It looks like the poultry sector is gradually collapsing due to the persistent increase in the feed and other inputs cost.
“Most poultry businesses have shut down because they are unable to cope with the high cost of production,” she explained.
The youthful CEO lamented the fact that Ghanaian poultry farmers still find it difficult to compete with importers of frozen chicken since their cost of production is substantially lower than what is produced in Ghana.
Also, she said frozen birds are considerably cheaper compared to what is produced locally.
She stated that as a result, local broiler producers are finding it difficult to sell their fresh chicken due to the high cost of production.
“We learned from our research that there is a high demand for eggs and chicken due to their high nutritional value, so with the majority of our poultry farms closing, the existing gap will widen even more, leading to more imports of eggs and chicken, which will cause high inflation and put a strain on our economy,” she stressed.
Hannah appealed to the government and other stakeholders to assist in saving the poultry sector because if it is allowed to fail, many jobs will be lost.
Greatest achievement
Hannah touted her company’s receipt of a $10,000 grant from Standard Chartered Bank Women in Equipment programme, administered by the bank and the Ghana Climate and Innovation Center, as one of her accomplishments.
The money according to her was used to enhance the technology used on the farm.
She stated that her greatest accomplishment was that her business was able to give the people in her community access to extremely nutritious protein items such as eggs and chicken while creating direct and indirect employment for some of the women and young people in her community.
She added that she also gives manure generated from the droppings of chicken to farmers who grow crops.
Issues with gender bias
“When I tell people I own the business and that I started it from scratch, they often advise I get married so that my husband can help me run the business as if a woman isn’t capable of managing a successful agribusiness” she sighed.
The young CEO mentioned that others also assume her poultry farm belongs to her father or husband.
She said that she has not come across any obstacles or restrictions that prevent women from working in the agriculture business adding that the capital and labour requirements of some agribusinesses is the only thing that might deter women from working in agriculture.
“I believe that women are capable of anything given enough financing, access to technology, and the correct motivation” she emphasised.
Final words
She urged young people to create businesses in the agricultural industry since it is exciting and lucrative, noting that she had many possibilities and exposure there that she wouldn’t have had if she hadn’t been a farmer.
“Given that there is already a market for the food we will produce, I think making a smart and deliberate investment in agriculture is one of the finest moves someone can make,” she stressed.
- VALCO workers asking for dollar indexed salaries untenable – 4 November 2022
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La Bianca Company Limited, importers of frozen chicken products has entered into a partnership with Rockland Meat Company Limited to market and, distribute local poultry products.
At a ceremony to herald the new partnership, Chief Executive Officer of La Bianca, Madam Eunice Buah Asomah Hinneh, told the story of how La Bianca had learnt a painful story of failure, when their initial venture into the poultry rearing business collapsed due to a lack of cheap, available feed.
This experience forced the importer to think differently about its approach into the live poultry business, which led her to the realisation that “we cannot compete with the imported chicken without feed.”
Madam Hinneh revealed that after that humbling experience, her outfit decided to acquire land on which to grow maize, as a way of producing their own feed to sustain the business.
This farm currently produces about 300 bags of corn, annually, which will be used to support Rockland under this new agreement.
She therefore urged other local poultry producers to emulate their initiative and go into grain production.
She called for government support in the production of local feeds, which she believes will help stem the tide of foreign chicken imports, failing which, “the local poultry industry will be in trouble.”
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rockland Meat Company Limited, Edith Akosah Wheatland, explained that the agreement will have benefits, not just for Rock Land, but its outgrower partners, who produce ‘Akoko Tasty’ brand of chicken.
She stated that the biggest challenge they have faced has been marketing and funding.
She appealed for a waiver of certain ingredients that they bring in to support their production to be brought back to make their work sustainable.
She also appealed for a special rate for the agricultural sector, and also help the production of maize and soybeans to reduce the overall cost of production.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Charge of Crops, Alhaji Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, lauded the two companies for this partnership, calling it “a major breakthrough which will be beneficial to the entire industry.”
He disclosed that government, under the Savannah Improvement Programme, government plans to partner with farmers to improve crop production by removing the impediments to land accessibility.
Under this initiative, the government will take up the cost of buying land for maize and soybean production, with the understanding that farmers will pay for these lands in kind, considering the current economic climate.
He advised young graduates to go into agriculture, particularly cereal production, rather than waiting for non-existent white collar jobs.
National Chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association of Ghana, Victor Oppong Agyei, lauded La Bianca for pushing the production of local broilers.
He described the agreement between the two entities as “an opportunity to invest more in the industry. This should give a new wind to investment in the poultry industry.”
According to him, COVID-19 sent a signal that all countries should be food sufficient, noting that this is important for sustainable growth and development.
- VALCO workers asking for dollar indexed salaries untenable – 4 November 2022
- 2022 Fuel price increases: Petrol-94%, diesel-136% in 10 months – 19 October 2022
- Coalition: New producer price too low, it will kill cocoa industry – 18 October 2022
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