Sachet water too expensive in Sunyani-S-Poly students

Sunyani, Feb. 11, GNA - Consumer Association of Sunyani Polytechnic (S-Poly) has appealed to the National Sachet Water Producers Association an= d the Sunyani Municipal Assembly to ensure that sachet water sell at the righ= t price in the Sunyani Municipality. The Association said producers should be made to reduce the wholesale price to enable retailers sell the product at the national prevailing price of five pesewas.

Mr. Collins Aboagye, spokesperson for the Association, speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani on Thursday said a sachet is retailed at five pesewas and a bag of 30 sachets sold at GHC1.00 throughout the county except Sunyani.

He said in the Ashanti and the Greater Accra Regions and even Berekum in Brong-Ahafo, a bag is sold GHC1.00 while a sachet is five pesewas and therefore questioned why in Sunyani producers had hiked prices, which had compelled retailers to sell a bag at either GHC1.70 or GHC1.80 and a sachet at 10 pesewas. . He observed most of the sachet producers in Sunyani Municipality did not have the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) batch number on their products to certify and guarantee the products' quality a= s wholesome for consumption. This renders the quality of some of these products in the municipality questionable and consequently could be injurious to public health, the spokesperson added. Mr. Aboagye intimated that those manufacturing companies did not also indicate the manufacturing and expiring dates on their products, saying tha= t was necessary because like any consumable, there should be an indication of when it was manufactured and the date of expiration on it for the safety of the consuming public.

The Association therefore appealed to the Sachet Water Producers Association and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to compel the producers in the Sunyani Municipality to supply the products to the retailers at the appropriate price.