Roundup: Sudanese head into Ramadan month amid soaring commodity prices

The Sudanese head into this year's holy month of Ramadan on Thursday with diminishing joy and happiness due to price hikes in consumer goods.

In Khartoum, streets are almost empty on the first day of Ramadan, while major markets suffered from lack of tussle by citizens to purchase Ramadan commodities due to high prices.

At Al Souk Al-Markazy (Central Market) south of Khartoum, merchants complained that compared to previous years, the demand for Ramadan commodities are tellingly lower.

"In the past, we used to sell large quantities of Ramadan commodities, but this year purchasing power has dropped due to the economy," Abdalla Abdul-Ghader, a Sudanese merchant, told Xinhua Thursday.

"This year sales are very low and citizens complain about high prices accusing merchants of doubling the prices. This is not valid, because as merchants, we're also victims of the deteriorating economy," he noted.

However, Hamdan Gabral-Dar, a Sudanese citizen, believes that merchants' greediness and lack of government monitoring are behind the irrational hike in commodity prices.

"Under the pretext of a free market economy, the government abandoned the market to the greediness of the merchants," he said.

He went on to say "In the past we used to buy our full package of Ramadan needs quite early on, however this year we have no choice but to adopt a day-by-day policy to replenish our needs on daily basis."

Meanwhile, Xinhua's tour in major markets in Khartoum revealed a hike in most of Ramadan's commodities, where a sack of dates registered an unprecedented price of around 1500 Sudanese pounds (about 250 U.S. Dollars), while prices of other goods like sugar, food oil and various of spices have all gone up by 30 to 40 percent.

Additionally, price hikes also affected Hulu-Murr (Bitter-sweet), a traditional Sudanese soft drink, usually prepared during Ramadan. It is made mainly of sorghum and is an essential ingredient on the Ramadan breakfast table during the holy month in Sudan.

Hulu-Murr is popular across Sudan, thus dubbed "King of Ramadan table." Sudanese housewives begin preparing Hulu-Murr months before Ramadan. It is made of fermented sorghum flour mixed with several spices to guarantee the desired taste.

"Hulu Murr is essential for any Sudanese family during Ramadan, but it is expensive to prepare under current conditions," Sakina Osman, a Sudanese housewife, said.

Facing soaring prices, the government has adopted measures. The Sudanese Chamber of Industries Association announced that precautionary measures were taken to confront the price hikes of several commodities, namely sugar.

"Among those measures was the establishment of a specialized committee to monitor sugar distribution and other commodities to ensure their delivery to citizens with adequate prices," said Allam Saqairoun, the association spokesman.

He warned merchants against manipulating prices or exploiting citizens' needs during Ramadan, urging citizens to stick to official declared prices to preserve their rights and help combat the phenomenon of price hikes during Ramadan.

Nevertheless, observers believe such measures are not effective enough to curb price hikes.

"Government mechanisms cannot monitor the market effectively as such measures have previously failed to counter prices hikes," Al-Saddiq Abdul-Jalli, a Sudanese economic analyst, told Xinhua. Enditem