Fruit farmers beg for patronage at Zuba market

If you visit the Zuba Fruits Market between 6.00a.m. and 8.00a.m., you will probably understand the sad expressions on the faces of farmers who entreat buyers for patronage. Every nook and cranny of the market is stocked with different variety of choice fruits. However, the farmers who come from far places in search for better […]

If you visit the Zuba Fruits Market between 6.00a.m. and 8.00a.m., you will probably understand the sad expressions on the faces of farmers who entreat buyers for patronage.
Every nook and cranny of the market is stocked with different variety of choice fruits. However, the farmers who come from far places in search for better market end up begging to have their produce bought.
These farmers sometimes are forced to sell their crops at very cheap prices, especially when the produce are in huge supply, like pineapple currently is.
Bedeviled by lack of storage facilities, these farmers are further compelled to sell at what many in Nigeria will call “give-away” prices leaving many of them sad and angry as many buyers will still bargain for further slash in prices.
Currently, the supply of pineapple in the market is quite huge and the farmers are struggling to get buyers for their produce.
Mrs. Victoria Udoh is one of the farmers from Edo State, who brought her product to the Zuba market. She told Daily Trust that the current economic situation is affecting them as they see fewer buyers than it used to be in the past.
Mrs. Udoh said that getting a company to buy farm produce from them will put some money in their pockets, but that “for now we have not seen any company coming to us for pineapple, neither do we see advert for us to supply it anywhere.”
Shuaibu Ibrahim is an Auchi-based fruits and plantain farmer. He lamented that the cost of bringing the produce to the market leaves the farmer with very little as proceeds of his efforts.
“We are only managing to survive in this business because you can’t keep the fruits for long, say one week or more, also you can’t tell the fruits to wait for the time the demand goes up for you to get better offer from buyers,” he said.
Zuba Fruits Market is the major fruits market in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) but also one of the most neglected places by the Gwagwalada area council authority.