Africa-Press – Uganda. Nebbi District second hand cloth dealers who restocked with expectation of reaping more profits this festive season say they have been disappointed by the low sales ahead of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
One of the dealers, Mr Geoffrey Onencan told this reporter that most of the traders are operating on loans from their village saving schemes and that they may not be able to repay in time since the demand for second hand clothes is lower than it has even been during such seasons.
“We move from market to market looking for business but still the demand for second hand clothes is very slow,” said Mr Onencan who had stocked 10 bales of clothes for sale.
Ms Josephine Akello who has operated the business for over 10 years now said a bale of good quality men’s shirts is sold at approximately Shs1.5 million, which is relatively higher than before and has eaten into their profits.
“We are spending a lot of money transporting our merchandise from one market to another in search of customers but the demand is very low,” Ms Akello said.
Nebbi Market vendors’ Association chairman, Mr Jatex Opio attributed the low demand to poor crop yields and lack of money by residents most of whom are farmers who sold their cash crops at lower prices set by middle men in the district.
According to him, vendors enjoy good business profits in the festive seasons when prices for some cash crops like coffee and cotton are relatively higher.
“But this year the coffee and cotton farmers are also hit by low prices for their farm products making it hard for them to spend more. Our sales in the festive seasons are determined by prices of some of the key agricultural products. Traders are experiencing poor sales compared to 2021. Although there was Covid-19 effect but the turn up was okay,” Opio said.
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