Cereals: To reduce rising prices, ANSAT opens up its stock to the local market

Agriculture

Monday, 12 July 2021 17:58

Cereals: To reduce rising prices, ANSAT opens up its stock to the local market

(Togo First) - The National Food Security Agency of Togo (ANSAT) sold 887 tons of cereals over the past month.

This includes 874 tons of corn and 13 tons of sorghum. The 50kg-bag of the former was sold at CFA9,500 while the 50-kg bag of sorghum was sold at CFA10,500.

The supply helped lower market prices of corn - the bowl (2.5kg) is now sold at around CFA700 (against CFA750-800 previously) in Lomé and CFA600 in other parts of the country.

Ouro Koura Agadazi, Director-General of ANSAT, said that despite this reduction, the situation in the sector remains concerning “due to speculation, external pressure, and illegal export.”

Thus, the government has decided to take drastic measures to tackle the smuggling of cereals and alleviate market pressure. “At first, we adopted a sensitization approach. From now on, we will indefinitely confiscate any smuggled stock we seize at our borders,” the ANSAT’s official warned.

The ANSAT, it should be noted, decided to open up its grain stock to the market due to a sustained surge in prices over the past few months. As at June 30, 2021, the Agency had 12,917.07 tons of cereals stored in its warehouses.

Esaïe Edoh

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