Senior Partner at AB and David, Dr. David Ofosu-Dorte, has attributed the persistent rise in food prices to the influence of market queens who, according to him, control vital links in the food distribution value chain.
Speaking on the issue, Dr. Ofosu-Dorte noted that these queens exert significant power over how food items are transported from farms to urban centres, impacting availability and pricing.
“There’s something called market queens, they decide what you eat. They control who plants tomatoes, who brings the planting to the market and all that,” he said, illustrating the extent of control some of these individuals hold in the food supply system.
He further highlighted their ability to influence distribution, saying “it’s possible for a market queen, for example, to decide that a particular product will not be sent to a particular district.”
He urged policymakers and regulatory bodies to address the grip of these informal leaders, who, in his view, are often shielded by political affiliations that make intervention complex.
“A lot of food actually get rotten in the villages, meanwhile we suffer a huge amount of post-harvest losses, because the food is not being transported to where it is supposed to be consumed, this is because some queens are controlling whether it should be transported or not.” He continued, “Because they fund these things, they have a complete control and we need to address that as a nation. These are the fundamental issues, and we need to address and deregulate it.”
Dr. Ofosu-Dorte also criticised some transport associations, including the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), for allegedly collaborating with market queens to dominate the transport of food commodities and create monopolies that disrupt fair pricing.
He pointed to a past government intervention as a clear example of what can be achieved without such gatekeeping, referencing the Ministry of Agriculture’s successful direct transportation of plantains at reduced costs.
“How come their plantain was cheaper than others? It’s because they were transporting it through vehicles under their control,” he explained. “This shows that the issue isn’t with the farmers or the produce, but with the transportation system, which is being controlled by a few individuals.”
According to the World Food Programme, Ghana suffers an estimated $1.9 billion in annual post-harvest losses. While this is often linked to poor road networks and inadequate storage or processing facilities, Dr. Ofosu-Dorte’s remarks suggest that unchecked control within the market distribution structure also demands urgent scrutiny.
Source: Isaac Atta-Osei Nyarko
