The agriculture ministry has announced it is revising the farm-gate price for a metric ton of groundnut upwards to up to D23,000 – and that farmers are now at liberty to sell their groundnut to whomsoever they want – and ditching its initial gate price of D20,700.
Last month, the agriculture ministry railed that certain persons and private entities in buying groundnut directly from farmers and evacuating it outside the country without following due process. The claim immediately faced backlash.
On Thursday, the ministry in a statement said ‘individuals’ are at liberty to sell their groundnut to institutions and places of their choice.
“However, individuals or institutions that intend to be sales agents [sic] are required to registered [sic] with the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation formerly Gambia Groundnut Corporation,” the ministry said in a statement. “This is necessary for the government to ensure the proper standards are maintained and to take account of the total tonnage of groundnut being sold for planning purposes.”
