A Ghana New Agency (GNA) market survey has discovered that there has been a shortage of tomatoes at the Sunyani main market.

During a visit to the market on Thursday around 1100 hours, vegetable sellers said, “tomatoes and onions are scarce in the market nowadays.”
After hours of combing through the main market, no trader was sighted selling tomatoes, however few of them had onions for sale.

The traders said though the market demand had soared for some time now, they could not get the stuff to sell.

“Tomatoes and onions are difficult to get,” Ataa Abenaa, one of the market women stated.

The traders however, attributed the shortage partly to the political instability in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, producers of tomatoes and onions respectively.

They stated that most customers preferred tomatoes and onions from both countries to the local types, because of their quality moisture contents, saying those types did not rot easily.

Mr Stephen Oduro, the National Vice Chairman of the Ghana National Tomatoes Producers Federation, when contacted by GNA, confirmed shortage in parts of the Bono Region and appealed to the government to construct irrigation dams for local farmers to boost production.
He also appealed for storage facilities, saying the onset of the rain had affected all their tomatoes in stock, causing their decay.

With irrigation and storage facilities, the farmers could plant seedlings all year long, adding to the current unpredictability of the weather that had slowed down and affected tomato production in the country.

Mr Dennis Amenga Abugri, the Bono Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was unfortunately not available to comment on the situation.