By Stephen Nuwagira
The prices of beans have inched lower over the past three weeks in Ibanda district as buyers stay away despite this being the main crop year’s planting season.
Produce dealers in Ibanda town this week quoted mixed beans at shillings 3,000 per kilogramme lower than the shillings 3,200 recorded on August 12, 2023.
The stockists buy mixed beans from farmers between shillings 2,300 and 2,400 compared to shillings 2,700 per kilo previously.
Green beans range from shillings 4,300 to 4,500 a kilo, Nambale long and Nambale short, as well as yellow beans varieties cost shillings 4,000, dropping from shillings 4,500 per kilo. That of big white beans go for shillings sh5,000, down from shillings 6,000 over the reporting period.
Relatedly, unsorted groundnuts go for shillings 5,800-6,000; sorted ones are for shillings 6,500 a kilo, and the farm-gate price isshillings 5,200 per kilogramme, inching lower from shillings 5,300 in mid-August.
Dry cassava goes for shillings 1,800-2,000 a kilo while farmers pocket between shillings 1,400 and 1,500 per kilo at produce stores in Ibanda town.
Maize growers earn shillings 1,150-1,200 per kilo of the grains sold, while dealer sell the same at sh1,500, which is largely unchanged compared to three weeks ago.
A kilo of sorted millet costs shillings 3,000 each with that of the unsorted cereals going at shillings 2,400 and sorghum is at shillings 2,300 at stores in Ibanda town, The farm-gate price for sorghum is shillings 2,200 per kilo.
Low demand
Godfrey Begumisa, the chairperson of the Ibanda Produce Dealers Association, attributed the drop in a range of produce items to low demand, saying that there were few buyers despite this being a planting season for the main crop year.
He added that there were also few regional buyers from Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, something that has subdued the prices.
Bulk buyers from Kampala and the East African Community countries are the main buyers of the local produce items besides educational institutions.
