Some traders in Calabar has said that poor road network contributed to the rise in the cost of some commodities in the city.
The traders spoke in separate interviews with newsmen at the Watt and Marian Markets in Calabar, Wednesday.
Mrs Theresa Okon, a yam seller at Watt Market, said that the prices of the commodity increased because of the high cost of transporting the product to the city.
She said that due to the bad roads, transporters had increased their fare because only a few of them now ply the villages where the commodity was brought from.
According to her, she also has to increase her prices, to make some profit after sales.
“It has become difficult to get a truck from Calabar that goes to those remote villages, especially in Ikom Local Government, where the roads are very bad.
“Some drivers have stopped plying those routes; others who want to go increase the transport fare by almost 100 per cent.
“Before now, we used to pay between N15,000 and N18,000 from Ikom to Calabar. But as we speak, the fare is now between N25,000 and N30,000,’’ she said.
Mrs Portia Eyo, a plantain dealer at Marian Market, said the cost of conveying the item from Obubra Local Government Area to Calabar had become very expensive.
According to Eyo, only few transporters now go to Obubra to carry plantains to the city, because of the nature of the roads.
“Even when some of these transporters agree to go to Obubra, they refuse to take us to the bush where we buy the commodity at cheap prices, because of the state of the roads,’’ she said.
A garri dealer, Mr James Etta, said the bad roads in Cross River had pushed up transport fares, which had also reflected in the price of foodstuffs.
He said that a basin of garri, for instance, had risen from N6,500 to N7,500.
Etta said the price could only come down if transporters were ready to reduce their fare on the route from Yakurr Local Government to Calabar.
“The situation is going to be worse during the rainy season. The Ikom-Calabar highway needs attention; it has been neglected for too long’’, he said.
A resident, Mr Emmanuel Ibor, however, said that the increase in prices was not new.
Ibor said that some of the foodstuff traders were using the bad road as an excuse to inflate the prices of food items.