The Deputy Minister of Agric, Yaw Addo Frimpong, has admitted that the current state of inflation when it comes to the prices of food in the country is at an unprecedented level.

According to him, local challenges with food production as well as global trends have exacerbated the food situation in the country.

He, however, insists there is enough food stock in the country to feed citizens till the next harvest season.

He noted that government’s decision to also stock up food produced in order to prevent a shortage on the local markets in the months of May, June and July might also be contributing significantly to the food price inflation.

“Yes, currently I will say that we have good stock of food in our system. It is getting to the market and then people taking advantage of the world situation as it is right now.

“No, we still have some [food] in stock, but we need to manage it well because between now – you see every year around this time food prices begin to rise. But this year it’s been serious. But the good thing is this. We have food, we have food in the system,” he said.

“If you don’t regulate it well, everything will be gone by April and May, June, July these are very tough times. Every year May, June, July very tough times, so we need to manage these things very well so that you spread it.

“People will be okay if they go to the market and they get some of these items to buy even at whatever price than not getting it at all. And when you get to such a situation that is where we have good managers, we need to manage the situation,” he explained.

He noted that smuggling of food produced across the country’s borders is also contributing to the shortage.

He stated that government has set into motion certain regulations to check the smuggling of food in order to prevent a shortage in the country.

“We need to do that because you can never tell. Just as I indicated in spite of all the regulations and everything we can never tell what can happen in the night across our borders so what we have within the system we need to manage it well. We need to manage it in such a way that we will not run out by May or June. We should not run out of food stuff in this country,” he said.