By Adewale Sanyaolu

Traders across major markets in Lagos have lamented their poor sales during the Christmas period. In separate interviews with Daily Sun, traders in the popular, Oke-Odo, Daleko, Mile 12 and Oyingbo food stuffs market worried that this year will pass as one of the worst in their history.

They said the economic  meltdown and low purchasing power of Nigerians was responsible for the poor sales.

At the popular Oke-Odo food market, a rice trader, Mrs. Mulikat Adio, blamed the government’s closure of the land borders for her failure to make much sales this year. She said  local rice was almost at par with foreign rice, currently selling at N42, 000 per bag.

“Most of my customers who usually buy in bulk to distribute to charity and some households during the yuletide could not do so this year due to the high prices.

When I reached out to them, they cited poor state of the economy as a major reason.

The situation was also same for my household customers. As it is now,  I hardly sell 50 bags of rice in a week,” she lamented.

A trader at  the Mile 12 Market, Alhaji Abubakar Gumi,  said the insecurity and high cost of fuel is to be blamed for rising prices of food stuffs. He said the failure of government to address these two challenges remained a major setback for businesses.

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Gumi said a basket of tomatoe  currently sells at N50,000 as against N20,000 it sold one year ago.

According to him, most Nigerians could not afford to stock food during this yuletide.

“The strategy they adopted for was to buy piecemeal which in the long run is costlier. But because they cannot afford to buy in bulk, hence the strategy. Other food stuffs which included; pepper, onions, green beans, lettus carrot have all increased astronomically.”

The situation was the same of the Daleko Rice market as traders complained of low sales during the yuletide.

A trader at the market, Mrs Funmilayo Adisa, said most of her corporate clients who bought rice in bulk as gifts to staff of corporate organisations deserted the market this year.

She said those who still managed to make purchases reduced their orders by over 70 per cent while household customers were no where to be found. Narrating her experience, Mrs. Ngozi Obi of the Abbatoir market in New Oko-Oba, Agege, said the cost of poultry feeds have more than doubled, leading to a sharp rise in prices of chicken.

She said an medium sized chicken with cost about N7,000 some months ago is now N12,000 while large ones are sold for N15,000.

Obi said most customers have switched to cow meat and Titus fish as a substitute for chicken.