Western North, most expensive ‘food region’ – GSS

Dr Faustina Frempong-Ainguah deputy government Statistician [second from right] with the staff of ATU and others photo Lizzy Okai

The Western North Region is the most expensive region for food stuff in the country from January 2023 to February this year.

According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) report prices of 10 food items were tracked during the period and named them as bread, beans, yam, noodles, cooking oil, tomato paste, milk, beef, iodated salt and imported rice which were the most expensive for consumers.

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Dr Faustina Frempong-Ainguah (right) and other partners launching the report

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) launched its second Food Price Variability last Thursday at the Accra Technical University (ATU), revealing significant differences in food prices across the country.

The GSS report on Food Price Variability in Ghana, which was launched in collaboration with Accra Technical University (ATU) in Accra gave an outline of the prices of selected food items with variations within and across the 16 administrative regions of Ghana over the 14-month period.

It was jointly launched by the Deputy Government Statistician, Dr Faustina Frempong-Ainguah, Prof. Ernest C. Winful, Dean, International Programmes and Institutional Cooperation of ATU, and Prof. Alice Constance Mensah, Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences, ATU.

The report was to highlight the need for regular assessment of regional price variability to aid consumer decision-making at the regional level.

The analysis of the report showed that greater price variations, generally existed within regions rather than across regions.

The findings from this year’s report demonstrate that for the month of February 2024, the Western North Region is the most expensive region of the 10 selected food items, having ranked as the highest median and ranked six times in the top 3 regions for the 10 food items.

According to Mr Simon Tichutab Onilimor, data scientist of the Ghana Statistical Service, the change in prices of imported items in a year was higher than the items produced locally.

Among the 10 selected food items were bread, beans, yam, noodles, and cooking oil. Other items include tomato paste, milk, beef, iodated salt and imported rice.

The report showed that commodities with standard packaging had less price variations across the regions, suggesting that adherence to standard metric could help stabilise prices and food inflation in the country.

The factors that cause variations in prices over time and across geographic areas were transportation cost, local production expenses, supply chain disruptions, and seasonal fluctuations.

The median prices for six items in the Western North Region were ranked in the top three, and the region’s median rank was 3.0, making it the most expensive region for the group of selected food items, followed by Ahafo with a median rank of 3.5.

Upper West Region, with the lowest median rank of 13, was the least expensive region for the 10 selected food items.

Dr Faustina Ainguah said the GSS was proud to host the launch of the report at the university and was committed to collaborating more with the school in years to come.

The study of the trends of the price variation of the selected food items is to help consumers, retailers and producers make informed decisions as to which market or region to patronise.

He also stressed that the data as periodically released by the GSS “is reliable, accurate, and not borne out by any individual or group’s parochial interest.”

BY ELIZABETH AGYEIBEA ACKON