Excitement as New Grains Arrive in Kano Dawanau Market

As farmers across the country begin harvest, various farm produce have started flooding the markets, with slight effects on their prices.

A visit to the popular Dawanau grain market in Kano revealed that in the last seven days, there have been fluctuations in the prices of farm produce.

Although our correspondent reports that produce prices earlier dropped, it now fluctuates as the market is at present witnessing mad rush for agro commodity.

Alhaji Danlami Umar, a regular customer at the market, said agro commodities in the last one week, have recorded a slight drop in price.

He said because of the reduced price, merchants are now flooding the market to mop up the commodities, thereby causing the price to rise again.

“Look around the market; you don’t need to be told that there is a serious rush for commodities here. Ever since the new commodities started arriving the markets last week, merchants have been very busy outsmarting each other. This has made the price of grain go up as against the initial reduction,” he said.

An agro dealer in the market, Malam Shehu Bala Gwagwarwa, said new maize from Niger State which was initially sold at N18,000 per 100kg, is now selling at N20,000 per 100kg and that of Funtua and Lafia are selling at N19,000 while old 100kg of maize is selling at N23,000.

It was also gathered that newly harvested 100kg of beans brought to the market from Niger Republic, Katsina and Gujungu in Jigawa State, among other places, is sold for N41, 000 while old 100kg of beans sells for N53,000.

Another agro merchant, Hajiya Munirat Balogun, revealed that the mad rush for commodity was as a result of the fact that Dawanau market offers the best grain and if one wasted time, the commodity would all be sold out and that will spell doom for the merchant.

She added that the rush was also associated with the existence of multinational agro companies that creates a huge competition among merchants.

A survey  indicated that 100kg of new millet brought to the market from Gombe State is selling at N21,000 while old 100kg of millet goes for N24,000.

A 100kg bag of rice costs N56,000 at the market while Soya bean is N41,000 per 100kg.

A bag of Sorghum is now N28,000 while the new one is yet to be harvested. It was reliably gathered that business at the grain market is bubbling because merchants have been very busy competing amongst themselves in pricing and mopping up of grain from the market.

source Daily Trust