Demand for imported chicken products dropped following the dumping of a container of the product imported from Brazil weeks ago at the Ferry Junction ‘Bormeh’dump site. The Standards Bureau declared the product unfit for human consumption. Poor people in the Bormeh neighbourhood took cartoons of the chicken legs away for consumption.
Abu Sesay, sells chicken wings and legs at Magazine Cut in the Dove Cut market East of Freetown. He has seen a drop in the demand for chicken products.
“ I used to sell over 15 cartoons but now, I don’t sell up to 2 cartoons. Our customers mostly housewives refuse to buy claiming some of the chicken products are from the dumping site,” Abu Sesay said. “The Bomeh chicken is no more”.
Abu is a student preparing for the August/September West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE). He has a child and a wife to take care of.
“People are refusing to buy chicken products thinking that the container dumped at Bomeh is still in the market,” he stressed.
Zainab Tablic sells chicken legs at Magazine Cut too but many of her friends have stopped. Most people buy fish instead of chicken products these days.
Apart from the chicken sellers’ stories, other traders spoke of a drop in sales. They talk about how prices have soured up. Vegetable sellers including those selling potato and cassava leaves, talk about the increased cost of transportation.
“Our customers say their husbands are not earning much,” Zainab Tablic said. “Daily wage workers are grumbling that the rains are disturbing.”
Monday August 15, 2016