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Soaring prices stoke discontent in Sudan
[Arab News] Dufallah Al-Terafi's fruit and vegetable stand was once a bustling roadside shop, crowded with workers picking up ripe tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner on their way home in the evening.

Today, Al-Terafi waits in vain for customers as dusk falls over the Sudanese capital. His mangos and apples sit untouched in their cartons, the bananas hanging from a hook don't get a second glance -- the price tag is enough to scare off most.

"Look at all this just sitting here, noone comes to buy anymore because prices have gone up," he said, pointing to tomatoes now 3 Sudanese pounds ($1) per kilo, up from about 1.5-2 pounds a couple of months ago. "My business is suffering too much because of this."
Fruits and vegetables have a brief shelf life, after which they are unsellable. Perhaps Mr. Al-Terafi ought to consider cutting his prices to what customers will pay, so that he takes a small loss instead of a bigger one?
Al-Terafi and his customers are among a growing number of Sudanese squeezed by a surge in food prices, which is fueling anger in a country already weighed down by years of conflict, US sanctions and more recently, an economic crisis.

Inflation in the country's north -- where about 80 percent of the population lives -- was 16.9 percent in February, up from 9.8 percent in November, when the central bank effectively devalued the pound to boost liquidity in the financial system and erase the need for a black market, a move that tends to push up inflation.

Soaring food prices -- food and drinks inflation stood at 19.9 percent in February -- accounted for a big part of the rise, in a worrying sign for a government anxious to avoid mass protests that toppled leaders in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia.

Forced to cut subsidies on petroleum products and raise the price of sugar this year to cut the budget deficit, Khartoum blames its economic woes largely on speculation and hoarding. Analysts point to years of mismanagement and overspending.

"The real danger for the Sudanese government is that the worst is yet to come -- there's no reason to assume that food prices are going to come down or that the fiscal situation is going to get better," said Harry Verhoeven, a PhD fellow at Oxford University who focuses on the Sudanese economy.
Posted by: Fred 2011-03-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=319122