In Zuba: Fruits everywhere, but farmers make little income

Depending on what you are looking for, the market is organised in various sections with each selling a particular kind of fruit. The market has sections for watermelon, oranges, banana/ plantain, coconut, pineapples, pawpaw, garden eggs, cucumbers, kola nuts and others.Other farmers like those farming snails, ginger and other agro-allied products also seize the opportunity […]

Depending on what you are looking for, the market is organised in various sections with each selling a particular kind of fruit.
The market has sections for watermelon, oranges, banana/ plantain, coconut, pineapples, pawpaw, garden eggs, cucumbers, kola nuts and others.
Other farmers like those farming snails, ginger and other agro-allied products also seize the opportunity to meet the demands of people in need of their products. Although the market is specifically a fruits market, other non-fruit items are sold there.
This reporter walked through the narrow available spaces in the market along with hundreds of people who either come to sell, buy or organise a link between the buyers and the sellers for a fee, in the early morning rush to witness how farmers and fruit sellers fare.
A visitor will have to struggle with the wheel barrow pushers in the narrow paths amidst scattered fruits from one section to another to get what he or she wants. The reporter interacted with both the farmers and other stakeholders in the market.
Brother Peter, as he is fondly called, is a plantain dealer whose job is to help farmers sell their product. He told the reporter that the prices of plantain has fallen sharply apparently because of glut. “You know this is the season so what we used to sell at N20, 000 now sells for N13, 000 to N16, 000.”
Standing beside Peter was a young lady who simply was not willing to mention her name but lamented that she brought the product from Ondo on behalf of her father to Abuja, but could not generate the expected income.
She said: “I hope my father will understand. If you deduct transportation from whatever you sell from here, how much is left? My father will be expecting huge money at home, but he will be disappointed.”
Plantain is sold in 12 bunches each as a unit in the market. Depending on the size of the plantain, it is sold between N12, 000 to N17, 000. The product comes largely from Edo and Ondo states.
At the pineapple section, the reporter met Esther Adoye, a pineapple farmer, who brought her product from Ekpoma in Edo State. She stressed that the prices of pineapple have also fallen sharply due to glut, adding: “You can see pineapples everywhere here but we are struggling to get people buy it in good prices.”
A check at the prices of the pineapple in the market showed that one unit of pineapple which contains 12 pieces is sold for N3,000 as against N5,500 to N6,000 in the past couple of months.  In fact, a buyer could even get 12 pieces of smaller ones below N1,000.
Many pineapple farmers spoken to at the market expressed displeasure over low prices, saying that there was nothing they could do as companies don’t buy the product from them.
“If we don’t sell at these prices, what are we going to do with them?” Alhaji Nasiru Ibrahim asked. He is not a farmer but goes to Edo to buy the product from farmers and to sell it in Abuja.  “Pineapple is highly perishable, especially during the hot season.  So we are forced to sell it as quickly as possible to avoid many losses.”
Ibrahim recalled how he made money between June and September this year. He said that a truck load of pineapple fetched him huge sums of money, adding: “But these days, if you are lucky you make something small as profit; otherwise you will be forced to sell even on credit.” He is, however, optimistic that prices will pick up again in a couple of weeks.
Leaving Nasiru at the pineapple section, the reporter walked to the pawpaw section where Justina Adams was arranging her product in units of 12 pieces or, dozen, as they call it.  She told the reporter that the pawpaw market is no longer vibrant. Her understanding of the reason was that “there is no money in the country.”
The 32 year old lady has a different understanding of the situation around the economy of her product. Apparently blaming the politicians, she said: “because of the coming election, politicians hide money for the election that is why you cannot see money these days. People don’t have money to buy things again. Go to the market, everybody is crying for lack of money.”
Miss Adams said that the prices of pawpaw has fall drastically adding that one can get a whole pawpaw for as low as N100 or even less depending on the size.
The reporter checked out the prices of each unit (12 pieces) and discovered that the bigger sizes of pawpaw sold between N3, 500 to N5, 000 while smaller sizes go for as low as N1,000 and even less if one is buying more than one units.
Asabe Ebaluye who seems to be in her 40s was asked to describe how the falling price of pawpaw affects her.  “I may not be able to buy certain things for the children during this Christmas period. Even their school fees now will be a problem because immediately after Christmas they will go to school and you have to pay another school fees again.”