Food prices will start falling in September – NDPC boss

The prices of foodstuffs will start falling in September, Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, Director-General of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has said.

Speaking to Kwame Appiah Kubi on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Friday, 20 August 2021, Dr Mensah-Abrampa ascribed the rise in the prices of foodstuffs to climatic and international market conditions, which, he noted, have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a whole international difficulty that every country is going through”, he told Kwame Appiah Kubi.

“It is not only in Ghana that the prices of foodstuffs have shot up because the price of everything that is shipped has gone up”, he explained.

He stressed, “Everything, including fertiliser, including the importation of some of these supplements and food items from outside have gone up in pricing”.

“Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is general hardship but even Ghana is lucky because some countries don’t have food to eat at all”, Dr Mensah-Abrampa noted.

“Secondly, too, the rains didn’t come early”, he observed, indicating “Otherwise, there should be maize in abundance by now”.

“It’s an environmental hazard and difficulty that need to be looked at”, Dr Mensah-Abrampa added.

“So bad rains, the international situation and the pandemic conspired to cause the prices of foodstuffs to rise but we believe the prices will start falling within September because things are now normalizing”, the NDPC boss said.