THE general trend of the prices of food crops has continued to decline due to improved harvests this season as well as the government's measures to contain inflation.
Presenting a report on the general trend of prices of various goods in 2022/23 fiscal year, the Minister for Industry and Trade, Dr Ashatu Kijaji said the price of the common food crops like maize, rice, beans and pulses has gone down.
Addressing the media in Dodoma, yesterday Dr Kijaji said the average price of rice as of June this year, has gone down to 2,705/- per kilogramme compared to 4,000/- per kilogramme in October last year.
The lowest price of 1,750/- per kilogramme of rice was registered in July last year, being one of the lowest in all months before jumping to an average high price of 4,000/-.
"However, to ease the situation, the government intervened by issuing import permits to bring rice into the country to offset the deficit," said Dr Kijaji.
She further noted that the government continues to take effective and appropriate measures in controlling the arbitrary price increase of essential goods.
The production of rice for the year 2021/22 grew to approximately 1.708 million tonnes, which is less than 980,000 compared to the production of rice for the year 2020/21.
Adding: "Thus, exorbitant rise in rice prices in 2022/23 fiscal year was greatly exacerbated by low production as we witnessed in the period from July last year to June 2023."
Similarly, she said the price of maize went down to 771/- per kilogramme as of June this year compared 1,612 per kilogramme recorded in July last year.
"The months with the lowest prices of maize were July, August, October and November 2022 and June 2023 at a price of 700 /- per kilogramme," she said.
According to her, December last year witnessed the highest price of maize of 1,890/- per kilogramme.
Regarding maize which is the staple food, Dr Kijaji said maize production for the year 2021/22 was 6.42 million tonnes, which was 620,000 tonnes less compared to the production of 2020/21 which stood at 7.04 million tonnes.
Commenting about beans and pulses crop, Dr Kijaji said the analysis shows that the average price of beans in the period from July 2022 to June this year in the country was 2,837/- per kilogramme.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
She noted that July last year was the month that had the lowest price of all the months recording 1,650/- per kilogramme, while the month of October and November the same year had the highest price of beans than all the months at 4,000 /- per kilogramme.
"In 2022/23, we witnessed the price of beans rising significantly, in the period from July 2022 to June this year, the average low price of beans was 2,156/- per kilogramme, while the average high price was 3,533/- per kilogramme," she said.
According to Dr Kijaji, the production of beans and pulses crop for the year 2021/22 was 2.49 million tonnes compared to 2.236 million tonnes produced in 2020/21.
The production of common food crops in the country for the year 2021/22 was approximately 17.15 million tonnes, which is 1.52 million tonnes less compared to 2020/21 year.
According to the report the decrease in production was caused by insufficient rainfall.
