File photo of watermelons
Correspondence from Northern Region:
There is currently a hike in the prices of watermelon in the Upper East Region.
The month of November through to the yuletide always sees the abundance of the fruit on the streets and markets, but this year appears to be different.
The watermelons, which are predominantly grown in Bawku and its enclaves,
Read full articleare usually transported to other parts of the region and beyond, for sale.
GhanaWeb's Upper East Regional correspondent, Sarah Dubure, interacted with some dealers of the fruit, to find out more about the development.
A farmer in Bawku, Mr Joseph Abilla Yahaya, attributed the situation to the fact that most of his colleagues drifted into the cultivation of green pepper which proved to be more profitable than the watermelons.
According to him, their cultivation required less effort, and yet, yielded many fruits compared to the watermelons.
"Most of us are now farming the green pepper there is more profit there. With the watermelon, the first harvest isn't that much, the second you get more, the third increases and the fourth, but the fifth harvest reduces so much and the market becomes bad," He explained.
He however noted that with the green pepper, the more they harvested, the more they yielded fruits.
"With the green pepper, when you harvest, it produces fruit again in the next two weeks, so we harvest every two weeks" When you sell them in sacks, it is really profitable. They are usually transported to the Southern sector," he explained.
A watermelon seller, Madam Teni told GhanaWeb, the hike was as a result of a competition that ensued among traders in the region and that of those from neighbouring Burkina Faso.
"Just look at that truck going (Truck filled with watermelons) they are not from here oo, they are taking them to Waga(Ouagadougou) to go and sell. The watermelons there are not yet ready so they come here and load them to go and sell.
"They didn't grow much of the watermelons this year, so the prices are high. So there is competition among the traders for the melons and you see, the farmers want to make profit, so they always want to sell to those who can pay more," she bemoaned.
Another watermelon seller, Madam Felicia asserted that most watermelon farmers ran into a loss last year, hence, most gave up the cultivation of the fruit this year.
"Last year wasn't a good year for the farmers at all. Most of them were in debt because the watermelons got rotten. This year, they didn't produce much, so it is expensive," she said.
She lamented that the situation coerced them to sell the melons at a price that customers were not comfortable with.
"Last year, you could buy a full watermelon at a cost of GHC2 but this time, it is not possible. The way things are going now if I bring the watermelons, and l don't sell them from 5cedis onwards, how will I get the money I invested into the business back?" She quizzed.
Madam Felicia noted with worry, that anytime she mentioned the prices to customers, most of them walked away.
