Gari and beans sellers in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District of the Central Region have threatened a strike action over the increasing cost of ingredients used to prepare the delicacy.
Popularly known as ‘gɔbɛ’, gari and beans used to be one of the cheapest foods any ordinary person irrespective of status could buy due to its affordability.
Aside its affordability, it is also nutritious due to the variety of ingredients which include riped plantain, beans, palm oil, pepper and others according to one’s taste.
However, the equation seems to have changed following the increasing expenses associated with its preparation recently.
Some of the sellers have been telling Wassa-based radio station how the high cost of ingredients is taking a toll on their customers and forcing them out of job.
They explain customers complain of the quantity served them which they hold is not their making but the skyrocketing inflation bedeviling the economy.
They want government to do something about the situation.
“We used to buy a bucket of pepper for ₵30 but this is now ₵60. This kako was ₵1, it’s now ₵2. Things are really expensive now. Oil is now ₵100 and ₵120. For some of us we’ll stop doing it,” one seller lamented.
“Now when we dish out the food, customers are not content. They complain to make it look like we’ve deliberately hiked the prices,” another woman who sells gɔbɛ added.
According to this woman, “an olonka of beans is ₵25 but it used to be ₵15. Oil was ₵50 but now it’s ₵120. The beans and oil have become so expensive so we want to quit the business.”
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com|Ghana
