Cooking oil price hikes causes prices of ‘bofrot’ to shoot up

The current economic hardship in Ghana has led to an increase in prices of a lot of things, including goods, services, food and fuel.

One of the things whose prices have also shot up are cooking oil and flour, this has had a massive impact on traders in the bakery industry, as well as food sellers who use these ingredients.

According to a Joy Business report, the high cost of the price of cooking oil has led to an increase in the prices of buff loaf, popularly known as ‘bofrot’, and fried yam in the Ashanti Region.

Also, traders at Anwia Nkwanta revealed to the Joy News reporter that they risk losing their business capital if prices are not increased to correspond with hikes in prices of ingredients.

‘Bofrot’ is made from flour, sugar and other ingredients, which is fried in hot oil under high temperature.

The tasty delicacy is often taken as a snack in the afternoon.

Prices of vegetable oil have almost doubled in the past few days, currently selling at GHC1,000,00 a gallon from a little below GHC600.00.

“This business was in existence before we were born. The oil is now sold at 1000 cedis and the ingredient for ‘bofrot’ is less than 1000 cedis. So we realised we had to put a halt to making ‘bofrot’ so we can find solutions”, Ama Adu is one of the traders Joy News spoke to.

Meanwhile, data from the Ghana Statistical Service indicates that in September, inflation hovered around 37.2 percent hence food prices soared.

The traders further noted that the hike in the price of cooking oil will push them out of the business.

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