Fish scarcity hits Kaduna as prices increase by 20 per cent

The scarcity has affected daily earnings of fish traders.

Fish has become scarce in Kaduna, raising its price by about 20 per cent, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The rise in price affected tilapia, stock fish and mackerel, a situation fish vendors in the city said was caused by inadequate supply for more than two weeks.

A check at various cold rooms in Kakuri area of the city shows that a carton of stock fish has gone up from N8,000 to N9,000, mackerel from N4,500 to N5,800 and tilapia at N12,500 as against N10,500.

Aminu Murtala, who grills and sells fish in Barnawa, confirmed that he now buys a carton of tilapia fish at N12, 500 as against N10, 500 a few weeks ago.

Another vendor, Sule Audu, said he finds it hard to get fish to roast, due to scarcity and high price.

He said the scarcity had affected his daily earnings, which had gone down from N6, 000 to about N2, 000.

A cold room owner in Kakuri, Johnson Victor, said the price change was because “supply just slowed down due to the rains”.

“Usually, prices of fish are inflated once there is increase in the demand especially now that we have fish vendors at every joint in the state.”

He also said suppliers of the various fishes from Ibadan and Lagos had not brought the commodity for about two weeks thereby compounding the situation.

Abigail Adegoke, a customer, said she loves to eat fish in the evening but that the price just kept changing.

She urged the government to regulate prices of food items in the country rather than allow marketers determine it.

(NAN)