Wholesale market prices at Nakuru's main market for potatoes, tomatoes and kales slightly reduced by Sh500 per crate on Tuesday in comparison to the same time last week.
Veronicah Wanyoike, a potato wholesale seller and a former committee member of Nakuru Market Association (NMA), said that commodity prices in the market depend on rainfall.
“Ironically, the higher the rainfall, the higher the prices are but when rainfall reduces, prices reduce too. I think it’s because of the poor roads where we get the foodstuffs.”
She said that the traders get the produce directly from the farmers and transportation cost varies from time to time.
Wanyoike added, “When it is muddy, transport costs are more since we need tractors to tow stuck lorries which they have to pay for at the end of service.”
For carrots, less rainfall leads to increase in price since they can only be easily harvested when it is muddy. Farmers thus have to hire workers to water the farm for easy uprooting.
Moses Wagura who sells cabbages and kales, confirmed that market prices for the two commodities depend on rainfall.