Basic food basket: Consumer price discrepancies in Maputo – WATCH

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Basic food basket: Consumer price discrepancies in Maputo – WATCH

11:01 CAT | 09 Nov 2017

Miramar

There is a sharp discrepancy between the outskirts and central Maputo as far as prices are concerned, with the cost of transport a large contributory factor. Some housewives prefer to shop in markets far from the city centre because they find products in peripheral areas more affordable. Others shop in supermarkets closer to hand.

Rising prices have long been eroding purchasing power, and families take a calculator along when shopping.

In supermarket, potatoes are 300 meticais per kilogram, but only 250 meticais in the peripheral markets. Pasta in the supermarkets costs between 30 and 50 meticais, but in the markets onlt 22 metical; the rice 70 meticais per kilo but only 40 to 50 meticais on the outskirts; tsugar is 77 meticais per kilo in the supermarkets but around 65 meticais further afield.

Vendors say that the exchange rate and transport costs contribute to higher prices, factors that do not affect in the peripheral markets

The Rural Environment Observatory has collecting data in Maputo’s main markets since May 2017. The study shows significant variations among markets, influenced by factors such as appreciation or depreciation of the metical, the supply of products in the markets, changes in fixed costs and transport, the location of markets and the type of consumer by low, medium or high income, among other factors.