Perishable goods: huge financial losses for sellers

Proper storage and handling by retailers, suppliers, transporters and consumers, is necessary.

It is common in markets in Douala to find rotten oranges, water melon, pear, vegetables, tomatoes and mangoes, among others, in dumps or in overflowing garbage cans. Traders have not been silent in the face of these huge losses to their businesses and the economy.

Marché des Femmes has a huge dump for perishables. Afane Oscar says rotten fruits and vegetables in the dump are from retailers after they selected the good ones. Surrounding the dump are retailers with their fruits and vegetables exposed in baskets and on mats. The lime seller says in every 100 kg bought for between FCFA50,000 and FCFA 70,000, he incurs a loss estimated as from FCFA 2,000 to FCFA 7,000.

One of the pear sellers, Philomene K., told Cameroon Tribune that the losses were enormous, greatly reducing the profit margin. In a sack worth FCFA 15,000, she suffers losses of between FCFA 2,000 and FCFA 3,000; and at times up to FCFA 5,000 daily. “Suppliers sell to us in sacks we are not allowed to open and verify before buying. Often, very small and premature pear which cannot get ripe is mixed with good and mature ones, hence we bear the loss.

Only today, I lost FCFA 50,000 from a supply of water melon that cost FCFA 300,000,” explained Evariste Sonfack, a trader at Douala’s Sandaga Market.

To Anne Marie, who sells mangoes, most of the fruits and vegetables dumped in the market get bad during transit from production zones to the market.

The retailer bears the loss because he/she is not permitted to verify when buying. “I received a supply of two sacks of mango at FCFA 30,000 each and have already incurred a loss evaluated at FCFA 20,000 because most of the mangoes are bad,” he added. An orange trader at the Sandaga Market, Henry Kwetcha, said oranges that have little juice are sold among good ones, so some retailers sell them to unsuspecting customers to meet up with losses incurred.

Besides this economic loss, the environment suffers pollution as often the content of the dump rots on the spot after two or three days if not cleared. On the other hand, some consumers and retailers suffer losses if their products fall beside the dump.