Cost of milk, eggs, meat out of reach of low income homes
Wednesday September 29 2021
Drastic increase in the cost of basic food items, including milk, eggs, meat, beans, and fruits pushes them away from kitchen shelves. PHOTO | FILE
Low-income and vulnerable households in the city are facing price shocks due to a drastic increase in the cost of basic food items, including milk, eggs, meat, beans, and fruits.
Traders say the shortage is seasonal but the situation has been made worse by restrictions on the movement of goods due to the pandemic.
While it is not clear why the prices are rising, our attempts to get comments from the relevant government agencies were in vain by press time.
A mini-survey by Rwanda Today shows the cost of processed milk in the market increased to Rwf1,400 per litre from Rwf1,000 as a 12-piece carton cost between Rwf7,000 to Rwf9,000 from Rwf5,000. With a litre of second-grade milk preferred most by low-income and poor households selling at between Rwf450 and Rwf500 from Rwf350 at milk kiosks, households need to almost double their monthly raise to between Rwf13,500 to Rwf15,000 to keep them on the diet.
“I normally pay Rwf350 for a litre daily for my little children, but now they have put it to Rwf450. I have no choice because my little child cannot do without it,” said a mother of two (on condition of anonymity) who is a resident of Karuruma in Gatsata Sector.
The rise is extended to other items such as fruits, eggs, and meat.
A kilo of meat across Kigali butcheries goes for between Rwf3,000 and Rwf3,200 from Rwf2,800 a month ago. For the first time in two years, poultry products recorded one of the highest rises in prices with the cost of eggs rising by half as producers decry the high cost of feeds.
Fruits prices skyrocketed the most, increasing between Rwf300 and Rwf500 a kilo, while items like mangoes tripled in prices to Rwf3,000 a kilo over the past two months.
“Before many of these things were sourced from at least four destinations outside the country namely Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania, and areas such as Bugarama. Of these, we are only left with Kenya and Tanzania, and the supplies are scarce. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” said Valentine Nikuze, who is involved in bulk buying for distribution to eateries and individuals across Kigali.
A general gauge of prices of food at selected Kigali main food markets suggests that items like green bananas, maize flour, cassava flour, and vegetables remain on several homes’ shopping lists as their prices either remained stable or didn’t rise significantly since June.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) indicates that increased distribution and use of improved seeds resulted in improvements in crop production in season 2021A compared to the previous season of 2020A.
Its figures show the production of cereal crops including maize rose to 492,868 metric tonnes as opposed to 454,522 last year. Maize production alone was 378,641 metric tonnes in 2021A, up from 353,999 in 2020A.
The August Consumer price index (CPI) report released by the national institute of statistics shows inflation decreased by 0.6 percent year on year in August 2021 down from -0.4 percent in July 2021.