Onion price skyrockets in Zamfara

Onions, a bulb vegetable widely used in a variety of cuisines for its excellent taste to dishes, is going beyond the reach of the common man in Zamfara State, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.A market survey in Gusau and its environs recently, showed that the commodity has been scarce in the markets.A small basket of the commodity hitherto sold for N100 has gone up to between N500 and N600, depending on the bargaining power of the buyer and the quality.Speaking to NAN, Alhaji Inusa Saminu, the Chairman of sellers of perishable items in the state, said: 'We can now say that onions are no longer available in the state because of the high cost.''Saminu said that the cost of transporting the commodity from neighbouring Sokoto and Kebbi states had become prohibitive.He futher said exporting tomatoes and pepper from the state to other parts of the country had become a challenge.``We cannot move tomatoes and pepper to other parts of the country especially Abuja, eastern and southern parts of the country.``We used to charter a Toyota Canter to transport these items from Gusau to Kano State at the rate of N90,000, but the fare has increased, to over N200,000 for the same destination,' he said.
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