Guinea-Bissau government will import 60,000 tons of rice to mitigate the rise in prices
In recent days, Guineans have denounced, on radios and social networks, that a bag of rice of 50 kilograms can be sold for up to 23 thousand CFA francs (about 35 dollars) and that sugar “disappeared from the market.
According to the population’s complaints, the few traders who still have sugar are selling the product for up to 30,000 CFA francs (about 45 dollars) for each 50-kilogram bag when the government has set the price at 27,000 (about 41 euros).
The cooking oil, sold at 750 CFA francs (1.14 dollars) per liter, now costs twice as much.
To “mitigate the situation”, the Director General of Trade, Lassana Fati, believes that the government should intervene in an operation that he considers complicated.
“Taking into account the specificity of our market, the Government understood that it has to interfere with facing this shortage of necessities, so, together with its partners, the Government is thinking of making an emergency import,” he said.
The operation, which Fati thinks will be carried out “in the next few days”, should count on the involvement of the private sector.
The government plans to import 60,000 tons of rice of the 100% broken species known in Guinea-Bissau as “fragrant nhelen,” 30,000 tons of sugar, between 15 and 20,000 tons of wheat flour, and seven million liters of cooking oil.
“We think that soon we will be able to supply the market with necessities,” the Guinean Trade director-general said.
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