Somalia: In Puntland, food prices jump as country endures drought

Bosaso, Puntland, Somalia (AHN) – As strife-decimated Somalia suffers under a lengthy drought, food prices have jumped in parts of Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland, a local businessman said Saturday.

In an interview with All Headline News, Ahmed Awil, a businessman in Puntland’s commercial town Bosaso described price increases for essential foodstuffs in the markets there that may have an effect on poor people who live in regions under Puntland control.

Awil said that the main factor in the state of the country is that business hinges on give and take or a way of exchange.

“Trade is based on give and take…when you want to charter or rent a boat for business purposes; the owner of the boat may tell you if he is taking goods or livestock to the destination (one of Arab nations) where you want to make business or not. But the situation today is differ from so, no livestock to be exported and severe drought hit many regions in the country including Puntland,” the trader explained.

He says it is difficult to pay a boat’s round-trip rental fee. “If it is so, all businessmen are needed to increase the price to save the existence of their trade. Inflation in the essential foodstuffs comes next as the people are right now complaining it.”

Local residents have expressed a deep concern about the skyrocketing price of food. However, authorities of Puntland have not made any public statements about the food price increase.

Food Product Last Week This Week

(Prices in USD for 50-kilogram/110-pound bag)

1. Flour $26 $34

2. Sugar $42 $43

3. Rice $26 $28

With the nationwide drought, dozens of people died of hunger and thirst late last year and the beginning of 2011 after Islamist militants banned aid agencies from south-central Somalia.

Somalia has not had any functioning central rule to regulate all kinds of social and environmental issues for more than two decades.

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