The chief markets of Addis Abeba which look vigorous for the holiday with a big flow of consumers are Merkato, Shola Gebeya and Piazza Atkelt tera. Alemtshay Berhe, 55, a mother of four and a resident of condominium house at CMC Meri buys such holiday items as onion, tomato, garlic, at the Piazza Atkelt tera, which is closer to where she works, Radio Fana. Her displeasure is that some of the items she wants to buy always keep increasing in price, she complains.
At this market, onion, an essential ingredient for most holiday cooking, was sold for 11 Br on average, which is up from 10 Br the previous week. Ayene Berhane, a retailer of different food items at the same market said, though the price of onion has not increased considerably, it would be higher by the eve of Christmas. Onion was one Birr more expensive at Merkato. This price has shown an increase of two and three Birr from the price in earlier. Similar with the Merkato market, the price of onion at the shola market is also 12 br which has been the regular price for the past few weeks, showing no increase or decrease.
Tomato is selling for eight to 11 Br at Atkelt Tera, cheaper than it had been earlier because of the seasonal production, Wondmu Melka a retailer of vegetables at Piazza Atkelt tera said. But there is an increase at Merkato, going up from five to seven Birr. At Shola it is selling at a higher price of 11 Br to 13 Br per kilo.
Dissimilar with the onion whose price increase is not considerable yet, the price of garlic has revealed a significant increase at Atkelt tera, where it was selling for which is between 48 Br to 50 Br per kilo, up from 30 Br to 35 Br before a couple of weeks. Some retailers at Atkelt tera even gave up selling garlic. The raise could be due to a high demand of the ingredient, as it is essential to produce other food items such as berbere (powdered red pepper). The other markets have been selling garlic for 48.50 Br to 50 Br per kilo increasing from the earlier price which was between 30 Br to 40 Br.
The price of garlic is shocking because its increase had never extended to more than 25 Br per kilogram, Sayed Mohamed, a civil servant and a father of three who comes to Atkelt tera to purchase food items after he received his salary told Fortune. He has bought two kilograms of garlic for 100 Br.
The other food item which showed a significant increase at the three major markets is lemon, which is being sold between 30 Br to 35 Br per kilogram, up from between 15 Br to 20 Br per kilogram weeks ago. Lemon is produced more on the summer season, and this season is not the time for the production of the item, Mulugeta Hetret, a retailer at Atkelt Tera reasoned; there is no special situation due to the holiday, he said, adding that he sold five kilogram to 10 kilogram of lemons per day currently.
Besides potato has increased additional three Br per kilo at Atkelt tera, where it was sold for just five Br per . It has increased two Br in Shola market to seven Birr.
In the cooking tradition of Ethiopians red pepper is a decisive and predominant item, especially to prepare the known holiday food items such as Dorowot and key wot. Though its price is unpredictable and varies from time to time its average price was 80 Br per kilo at the shola market. At Merkato it had been sold for between 69 Br to 100 Br based on its standard and the number of spices added to it. Its spices are far more expensive than itself though their price has not shown special increase due to this coming holiday. These spices were sold between 35 Br to 70 Br per kilo at merkato. Similarly Metmeta, a kind of red paper was sold between 40 Br to 65 Br per kilogram on Merkato’s Berbery tera.
Asfaw Yilma, 28 a retailer of red pepper and butter spices told Fortune that since a week ago the amount of spices he sold per day has increased from three kilogram to five kilograms, because many customers want to prepare red pepper earlier before the eves of the holiday.
The Chicken market showed a wider price range of 90 Br to 180 Br, based on the size of the chicken. This price is marginally less than from the price during Ethiopian New Year and Meskel, the celebration of the finding of the true cross, when it ranged from 140 Br to 200 Br. Abdela Hussein, 35, a private worker was negotiating with a trader at Merkato to purchase a chicken for his old mother who cannot come and buy at the market in person. He had come to buy a chicken with a bigger size and male sex for 80 Br to 90 Br, managing to get one at the higher price.
“If I had not been able to find a chicken for 80 Br to 90 Br, I would not have paid higher. I would simply return,” Abdela told Fortune, feeling bad about the small size of the chicken he had bought. Unlike Abdela, Tefer Seyoum, 60, who lives in Kirkos District, was thankful that she was able to get one for 110 Br.
Both indigenous and exotic eggs were selling for three Birr at the Shola Market; where as in Merkato, it was 3.20 Br. Tinchsar Berkefete, 60, an egg retailer at Merkato for the last 30 years told Fortune that his sale had increased from 3,000 eggs per day to 5,000 eggs per day due to the high demand for eggs on the holiday at hand.
Butter was sold between 150 Br per kilogram to 185 Br per kilogram at shola market based on its type. The Lega one is sold between 170 Br to 185 Br per kilogram which has increased from 160 kilogram to 165 kilogram per kilogram. The medium one is sold at 170 br per kilogram. Whereas at the Markato’s qebe tera the lega type butter was sold at 170 Br per kilogram average and the medium one was sold at 150 Br. But the retailer Demsse Ayenew, 45, and father of three complained that there is no buyer and the market is dormant because many customers choose to buy from venders to minimize the additional cost of Value added tax they would pay if they bought from us. The price of butter on the Ethiopian new-year was 140 Br per kilogram, but now it has increased 40 Br, a customer at Demesi’s shop Endrias Hero who was consuming one kilo butter for holiday noticed.
The cattle market is between 18,000 Br to 22,000 Br at the Qera Gebya, which is less than the price of cattle in the Ethiopian New Year and last year’s Christmas holiday. The price of cattle at New Year was between 25,000 Br to 27,000 Br. The last year’s charismas price of cattle was between 38,000 Br to 40,000 Br.
According to the central statics agency (CSA) data the total population of cattle in the fiscal year of 2013/2014 was 55,027,280. Out of this total cattle population the number of cattle purchased at the same fiscal year was 3,801,418 cattle. The population has increased from the previous year’s, 2012/2013 fiscal year cattle population which was 53,990,061 cattle. However the number of cattle purchased at the fiscal year of 2013/2014 has decreased to 3,801,418 cattle from 4,041,702 in 2012/2013 fiscal year.
Abu Muleta, 38, a father of three is a goat merchant at Feyel tera; he sells three goats per day, whose price ranges from 900 Br to 3500 Br, according to their size and type. The price at the previous holiday, Ethiopian New Year was up to 4000 Br, despite this decrease however the demand is less because many buyers resort to cattle portioning in group and most of our customers are butcheries, Abu said. The price of sheep ranges from 1500 Br to 3000 Br at beg tera .the central statics agency data has shown that in the fiscal year of 2012/2013 the total population of goats and sheep was 24,060,792 and 25,489,204 respectively. This number of population has increased to 28,163,332 goats and 27,347,937 sheep in the fiscal year of 2013/2014. Similarly the number of purchased goats in the fiscal year of 2013/2014 has increased to 2,095,170 goats from 1,860,273 goats in 2012/2013. Despite this the purchased number of sheep has decreased to 3,887,855 sheep in 2013/2014 fiscal year from 3,961,624 sheep in 2012/2013.
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