Commodities supply still at hard point in Unity State after South Sudan independent
By Bonifacio Taban Kuich
October 13, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s Unity state is being hit hard by the rising price of vegetables and other commodities since independence of the country in July and conflict across the border in north Sudan triggered the closure of vital trade routes.
Despite the hardships being placed on consumers, merchants say they are not to blame for the rising costs.
Instead of importing goods from north Sudan traders are forced to bring goods by barge from the capital Juba in the far south of the country near the Ugandan border.
Customers who come to meet the Nile barges at Rubkotna and Leer Ports say the price of almost everything in the area has doubled cost since South Sudan’s independence in July.
The referendum that led to South Sudan’s independence was part of a 2005 peace deal ending decades of conflict that left the region chronically underdeveloped especially in terms of infrastructure making it hard to transport goods and bring produce to market.
South Sudan heavily relies on imports despite its fertile land.
Viviana Philip who was recently at a market shopping for her family added that the money her husband gives her to buy food with is not enough to feed her family.
“I’m here in Rubkotna coming to buy vegetables, all prices cost has been higher, whatever they gave us by our husband to buy vegetable is not enough, meat has been high, Okra has been high and if you go personal to buy a slippers is too cost, which is 25 SSP which was initially 10 SSP and we are now surprise with all this imposing high prices and looking at government of what they can decided on whether to bring down all these price increases”, said Philip.
The price of meat has also increased in Rubkotna. A kilogram of beef now costs 12 SSP which was initially prices at 8 SSP. But the increase has not benefitted Rubkotna butchery like Latjor Wiyoak who have explained that he had no choice but to raise his prices.
“It happens with the traders, if we go and ask the price of a cow from them, they increase the prices, the price we got there, when we try at lower cost it makes us no profits and so we decided to increase our price differently in order to top up our profit lose”, said Wiyoak.
Priorities to the independence of South Sudan, many of the merchants in Unity state were Arabs from the north. After independence these traders left the region. But obtaining goods for the market has been difficult for the entirely state coverage.
Former trade routes from South Kordofan have been shut down by the government in Khartoum. The shutdown came shortly after the Unity State government’s refusal to allow Joint Integrated Unit troops into the oilfields of the state.
Without access to the northern supply routes, traders in Unity state are forced to bring in goods from Juba by means of the White Nile, which is expensive and can take up to two weeks to reach the Unity State.
(ST)