Benin: High food prices divide families

COTONOU, 22 May 2008 (IRIN) - In a scene on a popular Benin TV series, a farmer named Codjo puts his wife out on the streets because she kept asking him for more and more money to buy groceries. But then, when he goes shopping by himself, Codjo discovers that prices have indeed doubled.

He laments having driven away his wife.

This fictional sketch is being played out in reality with the rapid rise in prices of basic foods in the capital Cotonou and other towns in Benin over the last six months.

"Compared to November 2007, prices are between 20 and 50 percent higher," said Claude Allagbe, director of commerce at the ministry of the interior.

IRIN found vendors in Cotonou selling a kilogramme of salt for 450 CFA francs, up from 250 CFA francs in November. Rice was selling at 450 CFA francs per kilo compared to 300 CFA francs and palm oil had leapt to 900 CFA francs from the earlier price of 500 CFA francs.

The psychological impact these price rises have had on families is palpable.

In Attogon, a village near Cotonou, market sellers told IRIN that it is now common to see men accompany their wives to market to check and compare prices.

At Glodjigbem, another village 35 km from Cotonou, elders said they recently had to calm the local mechanic who had flown into a rage at his wife's requests for more money.

Everyone suffers

The price rises are adding pressures at many levels of society. "The price of some products have increased even beyond the reach of people who work," said Anselme Amoussou, a teacher.

For Etienne Badou, a member of the Consumers Defence League in Benin (LDCB),
"the fissures within families and the society are more apparent in urban than rural areas but in fact they are much worse in rural areas where people are poorer".

The highest rates of nutritional deficiencies in Benin are in the rural north in the districts of Malamville and Karimama. But in total some 33 of the country's 77 districts are "at risk of food insecurity" according to the World Food Programme (WFP).

WFP says that 23 percent of Beninois children under five show signs of moderate stunting and 11 percent of children suffer from severe malnutrition.

Tax solutions

On 30 April Benin's government announced that it would undertake a series of measures to alleviate the price rises.

On 1 May, the tax levied on domestic and imported products to pay for social services called TVA (Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutée) was suspended for rice, flour and other staples.

However the measure does not appear to have worked. "There were some problems with applying the policy change," Allagbe, the director of commerce, said.

The problem, says Beninois economist Rhetice Dagba, is that there is no way for the government to ensure that traders pass on their tax savings to consumers. "To apply this policy it would be necessary to go to every market and rigorously inspect the price of every good," Dagba said.

Self-sufficiency

Another measure to alleviate high food prices that Benin's government is pushing is food self-sufficiency which agriculture minister Roger Dovonou said would require the more than doubling of current production levels.

As in others African countries, Benin's agricultural policy for the past three decades "was "to encourage cash crops for export to the detriment of food production," according to Dagba, the economist.

The new policy of food self-sufficiency will take time to implement, she added.

Cereal reserves

Another shorter-term solution is dumping food reserves. "Cereals the government keep in reserve have been released onto the market," the director of the food reserve, Irene Bio Aboudou told IRIN.

Her hope is that as supplies increase prices will go down.

But the measure is costing the state more than 35 billion CFA francs (US$83 million), according to government statistics. And so far prices have kept rising, one housewife told IRIN spoke while she was shopping in the market.

"My family are finding it harder to live on what we can afford," she said. "They make me feel that I am at fault. That I am doing something wrong."

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