but impending rains could spoil the party
For several weeks now urban consumers have been taking advantage of significant reductions in the prices of a range of fish in the city’s municipal markets while vendors have told Stabroek Business that exporters for retail outlets in some Caribbean territories have also been cashing in on this unexpected windfall.
When Stabroek Business visited the two city municipal markets earlier this week there was evidence that shoppers were taking full advantage of plummeting prices for tomatoes, boulangers, pak choy and ochroes. One shopper who described herself as a “long-term housewife” told Stabroek Business that she habitually takes advantage of seasonal drops in vegetable prices to buy and freeze the commodities. She said that current prices for some vegetables were as good as they had been for some time. Another shopper told this newspaper that she believed that it was in times like these “that we realize the blessing of growing our own food.”
And while local consumers were filling their baskets with a range of bargains two Barbadian-based Guyanese were pursuing intense negotiations with a wholesaler over vegetable prices. The two shoppers declined to discuss the details of their mission with Stabroek Business though the vendor disclosed afterwards that they were buyers for a large supermarket in Barbados. The West Coast vendor told this newspaper that the two usually travel to Guyana regularly to negotiate prices after which the produce is inspected at the Central Packaging Facility at Parika before being exported. She said that the two buyers regularly purchased calaloo, tomatoes and boulanger from her.
When Stabroek Business spoke with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation on Wednesday a source there said that local consumers were indeed enjoying a fairly protracted period of low vegetable prices. Last week, tomato prices fell to as little as $40 per pound while boulangers were being sold at $4,000 per medium bag, There is also much evidence of pak choy which, up to last Wednesday, was being sold at $40 per bundle.
Another vendor told Stabroek Business that the current low prices had seen intense competition among farmers to sell their produce in city markets. She said that while some vendors have tended to secure their supplies from particular wholesalers, low prices had meant that vendors were now purchasing their supplies from several sources.
Even as consumers take advantage of reduced prices for greens and vegetables, however, the imminent May/June rains threaten to send prices soaring again, according to one of the vendors. “It really is a question of catching these prices while you can,” the vendor said. Earlier this year, prices for fruits and vegetables had gone sky high after floods in cash crop areas like Mahaica.
Meanwhile, there was also evidence of reduced fish prices at the Bourda Market where medium-sized whole snapper and trout were being sold at under $1,000. A fish vendor told Stabroek Business that prices had dropped somewhat after Easter and that more households appeared to be opting for fish ever since chicken prices had soared above $300 per pound.
