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The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), yesterday, blamed market associations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory for the persistent hike in the price of food commodities.
The commission also said that insecurity is a major problem in food production, though some individuals in the market have become dictators in the supply and distribution chain of food products.
Acting Executive Vice Chairman, FCCPC, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, disclosed this in Abuja, during a one-day webinar with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Consumer Protection Groups (CPGs) with the theme ‘Collaboration for competition and consumer protection’.
Abdullahi assured of the commission’s commitment to control market politics and price gauging. He said: “We are not a price regulatory agency, but there are some sharp practices in the market that we have to ensure they don’t occur.
Issues like price gauging and cartel must be addressed.
“Every market now has associations for different products. Farmers who are not members of the association are prevented from entering the market, which defeats the essence of a market. These associations have evolved into cartels and they now decide the price of food products.
“But they go beyond price fixing. Now they decide the rate of food supply into the market to create scarcity and inflate the price of available products.
“These are issues we have found out and have taken action against. We have warned the Abuja Market Management and the Chairman of the Local government on the association practices which are against the law.”
Speaking further, Abdullahi noted that a market survey done by the commission in collaboration with the National Consumer Advocacy Group discovered that increase in prices of food was caused by faulty vehicles, and diesel prices, among others.
Speaking on government’s plans to address the cost of transportation, he said through the implementation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), traders and farmers would save at least 60 per cent of the cost of fueling these vehicles.
