For the past few months, egg sellers at Kantamanto in Accra’s Central Business District have been grappling with an unusual challenge as crates of unsold eggs pile up and go bad due to low demand.
Wholesalers and retailers, many of whom have been in the business for over four decades, say the situation is unprecedented, as eggs once considered a fast-moving and affordable source of protein are now going to waste.
This came to light during interactions between The Mirror and egg traders at the market last Monday.
The causes
An executive member of the Egg Wholesalers Association, Maame Serwaa, attributed the situation to an oversupply of eggs on the market.
According to her, a reduction in bulk purchases, particularly by senior high schools, had contributed to the glut.
“The system is choked. We don’t even know how to sell the eggs,” she said.
She explained that eggs supplied weekly by poultry farmers often went unsold, leaving traders with no option but to dispose of spoiled stock.
“When we receive eggs and are unable to sell within a week, we have to dispose of them because they get spoilt. Sometimes even the ones distributed to retailers go bad, and you cannot retrieve your money,” she added.
The situation, she noted, had forced some retailers to abandon the sale of eggs and venture into other businesses, including the sale of second-hand clothing.
Survival strategies
In an attempt to minimise losses, some wholesalers, she said, had resorted to boiling eggs and selling them at reduced prices, “sometimes as low as one for GH¢2 or three for GH¢5”.
Kosua ne mako
This coping strategy has, however, sparked tension within the market, particularly among kosua ne mako vendors, who boil the eggs for sale with spicy pepper sauce and the wholesalers.
A Kosua ne mako vendor, Abigail Nkansa, said the price cuts were affecting their business.
“When wholesalers sell three eggs for GH¢5, customers expect the same from us. When we say no, they refuse to buy,” she said.
She added that while wholesalers remained their main suppliers, their new pricing approach was undermining small-scale vendors.
“They are the ones we buy from, and they are the same people killing our business,” she lamented.
Ms Nkansa said she sold her eggs at GH¢3 for one or two for GH¢5, with the pepper.
Although the prices of eggs have reduced from between GH¢ 70 and GH¢ 80 per crate of eggs to GH¢45, she said sales remained low and there was an abundance of eggs on the market.
“There is abundance of eggs, but what is more in the system now are the small sizes,” she noted.
Despite the current challenges, she described kosua ne mako as a lucrative business under normal circumstances, indicating that she could sell up to four crates daily, making between GH¢25 and GH¢30 profit per crate.
She also highlighted the love of Ghanaians for the delicacy.
“Once a customer tastes your pepper and likes it, they can buy more than four eggs. Many people like plenty pepper,” she said.
Thin profit margins
Another vendor, Maame Yaa, said fluctuating prices and customer expectations were eroding their already thin profit margins.
“We buy the small size eggs at GH¢35 per crate and sell at GH¢40, or buy at GH¢40 and sell at GH¢45. It is just GH¢5 profit, but customers still want it cheaper because they believe it is in abundance,” she explained.
She said she woke up early to sell kosua ne mako before returning later in the day to sell crates of eggs to supplement her income.
Wholesalers
A wholesaler, Auntie Ama Asiedu, explained that wholesalers who had ventured into selling boiled eggs did so to reduce losses from excess stock.
“It is because of the abundance. Instead of letting them spoil, we boil some and sell,” she said.
She observed that food vendors, particularly Waakye sellers, were benefiting from the situation by buying eggs at reduced prices and reselling them for high profit.
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Source:
www.graphic.com.gh