By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The commodities market in Nigeria is currently battling with shortage of supply as a result of the restriction of movement in some parts of the country.
Business Post reports that farmers have been unable to transport their farm produce to where they would be able to get buyers for them.
In its weekly report, the AFEX Commodities Exchange said this situation has resulted in prices of commodities rising at the market.
It was stated that last week, the market witnessed lesser number of trades at the open market as a result of scarcity of commodities, resulting in supply price increasingly getting higher than demand price, making buyers and sellers quoting different prices and striking less deals.
During the week, the AFEX Commodities Index composite averaged 163.65 points, while the index performance remained stable across all commodities covered by the index.
It was stated that ginger price increased by a slight 0.1 percent due to less supply and high demand for the commodity on the exchange, causing a slight increase in price for the commodity.
Likewise, the price of maize, one of the commodities in high demand by big buyers who want to stock up in preparation for the anticipated post lockdown demand by consumers, went up during the week.
According to AFEX, “In the open market, the supply of commodities has been greatly affected by the lockdown currently taking place in parts of the country.”
“Restriction of movement has stopped many farmers from bringing their commodities into the market and this has led to a shortage of supply,” it said.
“Logistics have also been hampered because of interstate movement restrictions which has led to increased logistics cost,” it added.
Adedapo Adesanya