Faced with sharp increase in prices of everyday products, some of the Fort Portal city locals are struggling to make ends meet.
Most consumed nutritious foods in Uganda such as posho, beans, Matooke, grains and dairy products prices, have gradually increased in the last quarter of 2022.
As a result, locals from Fort Portal and Kabarole, have resorted to adjusting to the condition, by going back to the affordable diets for it to fit in their meager earnings budget.
The Casual Workers
With his meagre salary, Abias Tumuhereza, a casual worker at Begumisa farm Kigwengwe Fort City, has to adjust on daily meals, and can longer afford to feast on some foods like meat , following its abnormal price increment.
”I suffer being hungry on a daily, given the fact that I can no longer eat to get satisfied but just to live. The food prices have abnormally hiked to the extent that food items like meat have to be foregone forever. What hurts me is that our salaries were not increased amidst the tough economy, yet we have to still budget the same money to suit the hiked commodities.” lamented Tumuhereza.
Tumuhereza on food Prices
Tumuhereza, however requests government to intervene by regulating prices, so that the cost of living can yet again be met.
The Employers
Samuel Bamureeta, a manager at Kigwengwe Dairy breeders, who employs 60 workers, has noted that food prices have hardened their well being, to the extent that balanced diet currently seems impossible.
The farm manager, attributes this to the expense on increased food prices.
According to Bamureeta, farm workers consume a sack of Posho in a single day, whose price rose from 130,000 to 320,000. They are thus forced to adjust the quantity of meals offered to workers, who in turn complain of inadequate food.
The Street Vendors
Street vendors, who rely heavily on wheat and cooking oil to produce their main offerings like Rolled eggs [Rolex], chapatis, and Kikomando, have also adjusted on the quantity offered, to meet their rising costs.
A one Sylver Ojaix, Chapati vendor, has noted a sharp reduction in clientele due to unusual prices.
Due to the double rise of cooking oil and wheat, Oijax reveals that he no longer has Chapati for 500Shs, yet some of his customers can not manage the 1000Shs for his current reasonable sized Chapati.
He also revealed a reduction in the quantity of all his products.
UN warns
Mean while, the UN warns that the current food price crisis could be leave more than 31 M people hungry unless governments attend to the situation before it gets out of hand.
