MAKURDI – Prices of livestock have increased by more than 50 per cent across markets in Makurdi, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
A survey by NAN on Tuesday in Makurdi showed that the prices of goats and chicken were mostly affected by the price increase.
At the NorthBank livestock market, customers complained of the hike and appealed to dealers to reduce the costs
Also at the Wurukum and High level markets, the same situation prevailed.
A moderate size of goat which sold for N4,500 now sells between N8,000 and 9,000 while a big goat which sold for N8,000 now sells for N16,000.
The price of live chicken also tripled.
According to the findings, the price of live chickens at the market varied between N2,000 and 2,300 depending on the weight and size as against N800 and N1,200 respectively.
A cross section of the sellers attributed the increase on the cost from poultry farms and the hike in transport fares.
They said big poultry farms were located in rural communities which were almost inaccessible owing to bad roads which made transporters to charge high fares.
Mr Ngutswen Anyam, a livestock dealer, said he had to travel several kilometres into the rural communities to buy live chicken ad goats from the villagers for sale.
He said apart from bad roads and high cost of transportation, the cost of the livestock had been increased by the poultry farms and goat owners.
” We sell according to the way we buy them; if we do not adjust the prices, we will not be able to make even.
“No business man deliberately operates to lose; so if the price changes from the source, we also have to adjust to enable us to stay afloat.”
A cross section of buyers lamented the high cost of the livestock but appealed to both dealers and livestock farmers not to take advantage of the Christmas period to exploit buyers.(NAN)
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