Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE price of watermelons risen sharply in Dar es Salaam by almost three times in less than a month due to low supply.
The wholesale price at Veterinary Market, the largest watermelon market in Temeke, Dar es Salaam, climbed from 2,000/- at beginning of the month to 6,000/- on Thursday as fruit shortages increased.
The situation is normal at the end of the year since is out of season for watermelons.
Veterinary Market Watermelon Traders Association Chairman Athumani Bakari said despite the high price the business was good because of the high demand of watermelons.
“The price sharply rose due to low supply as we used to receive 20 semi-trailer trucks a day, but now we only receive five semi-trailer trucks. “The drop in supply is noticeably high,” Mr Bakari said.
One semi-trailer truck carries about 8,000 and 9,000 watermelons. This means the market now receives 45,000 watermelons a day instead of 180,000 watermelons.
The chairman noted that transport costs hiked further the price of watermelons since they were ferrying fruits from as far as Geita where hiring a semi-trailer truck cost as high as 1.6m/-.
During the season, they obtained fruits in regions near Dar es Salaam where it cost 400,000/- a truck. Mr Bakari said most watermelons were from Ushirombo in Geita.
Currently, a full truck of watermelon costs about 6.0m/- to 8.0m/- as the fruit is out of season, but it costs three times less during the season.
Watermelon business changes according to season, thus the price tends to change abruptly in the market due to some challenges facing the business such as high transport and season conditions.
Meanwhile, the chairman said despite a good business they were facing challenges due to lack of a proper area for the watermelon market.
“We do not have a good area that allows us to do our business well because Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) gave us this place after our area flooded,” Mr Bakari said.
