New harvests crash old yams’ prices in Niger
Farmers with old yams in their barns in Niger State are facing declining sales and falling prices following the arrival of new harvests in the market. An investigation by Daily Trust revealed that harvested yams, mainly supplied from Ekiti State, have saturated local markets in Minna and other towns, leaving stocks of the previous season’s […]
Some pieces of yams at the Dei-Dei market
Farmers with old yams in their barns in Niger State are facing declining sales and falling prices following the arrival of new harvests in the market.
An investigation by Daily Trust revealed that harvested yams, mainly supplied from Ekiti State, have saturated local markets in Minna and other towns, leaving stocks of the previous season’s produce largely unsold.
Traders in the Paiko weekly yam market confirmed to our correspondent that the new yams are being transported to the state from Ekiti State.
Yahaya Salihu, one of the major yam dealers in Paiko market, told Daily Trust that most yam traders in Paiko have relocated to Ekiti State to supply the commodity, leaving farmers with old yams struggling to sell.
“You can’t compare new yams with old yams,” he said. “As I speak with you, I am in Ekiti State, and most of the yam dealers who usually come to Niger State markets, including the popular Paiko yam market, from Lagos, Sokoto, Abuja, Kano, and other states, have all turned to Ekiti State now to buy.”
“Secondly, new yam cannot rot now if you store it, but if you dare buy old yams and keep them, they will rot. So, the selling capacity of old yam has gone down completely. If you go to our yam markets now, you’ll hardly see people buying old yams,” he added.
Another dealer and farmer in Paiko, Alhaji Yahaya Mai-Doya, said some farmers who failed to bring out their yams when buyers were purchasing seedlings for planting are now biting their fingers.
“Many farmers bringing their yams out now are finding it difficult to sell because buyers and consumers prefer the new ones. In fact, except for frying, old yam is no longer good for pounded yam. As I speak with you, we have told some traders bringing new yams from Ekiti State not to bring them to Paiko market for now because it would worsen the situation,” he said.
He said a hundred tubers of big old yam, popularly known as ‘kwariya’, that ought to have gone for N1 million was priced at N550,000.
Our correspondent reported that at the Paiko yam market on Wednesday, a pickup van loaded with old yams had to return with the commodity due to a lack of buyers.
Traders said the buyers who usually flooded the market from Lagos and other parts of the country have not come in recent times and will not return until farmers from the state start harvesting.
Across other major markets in Minna, hawkers are seen more with new yam from Bendel. They lament the sudden drop in demand for old yams, which until recently were a staple source of income for many farmers and vendors.
Rabi Ibrahim, a yam hawker, told Daily Trust that many of them have stopped hawking old yam since the new one came out due to a decline in demand.
The price slump has been attributed to the early arrival of new yams from the South. As consumers favor the fresher, often less expensive yams, unsold stocks from the last planting season continue to accumulate in storage.
Sani B. Sarki, Secretary of the Yam Dealers Association, Mutun-Daya market, confirmed to Daily Trust that buyers from Lagos and other parts of Nigeria are no longer coming to Niger State because the new yams in the south have more market value.
He said until November or December, patronage in Niger State yam markets would remain low until their own new yam harvest is out.