Accra, Feb. 20, GNA – The price of Ga Kenkey, a maize meal, has increased from 50 pesewas to between 70 pesewas and one cedi although the size has reduced, a Ghana News Agency (GNA) survey in Accra has revealed.

Some of the sellers, who blamed the increases on the high prices of maize in the open market expressed fear that without the intervention of the authorities, the price of the product would continue to rise.

At most of the kenkey joint visited by the GNA such as Adabraka, Laterbiokorshie, Zongo-Junction, Mamprobi its came out that Ga kenkey was being sold at the price of one cedi.

At Dansoman, and parts of the Ministries in Accra, the maize meal is sold at 70 pesewas and a few of the buyers expressed resentment at the trend of affairs.

Madam Esi Mansah a kenkey seller attributed the situation to the poor harvest of maize last year, due to inadequate rainfall, which she said had raised the price of an American tin of maize from two cedis and fifty pesewas to two cedis eighty pesewas and three cedis respectively not to mention the other items that went with the sale of the local food.

While some of the sellers were calling for maize importation to make up for the shortfall in the country, some felt the scarcity and high prices of the commodity was due to hoarding.

It would be recalled that the GNA reported on January 3, 2012, that Mr Michael Partey, Chairman of the Afram Plains Tractor Owners and Farmers Association had appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to reconsider its decision to import maize without proper consideration to the total maize stock in the country.

Government, late last year, announced its intention to import 43,000 tonnes of maize into the country this year, to make up for the poor harvest of maize due to inadequate rainfall.