By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
“I am going, I can not buy it here”, a downhearted 49-year-old Musa Touray, who went to buy ram voiced after wandering in the Brikama ‘Daral’ with an amount of money that could not get him his prefered ram.
Tobaski in The Gambia is on Saturday and Muslims with the means of buying Tobaski rams are going to the places where rams and goats are sold. Brikama ‘Daral’ is one of the biggest places where animals are sold and one of the busiest these days as Muslims prepare for Tobaski.
However, there has been an increase in the prices of rams this year. Some rams will cost a buyer 50 thousand dalasis.
Musa Touray woke up in the morning and went to the Brikama ‘Daral’ with 12 thousand dalasis to buy a ram for his family but left the place empty-handed due to the prices of the rams he pointed.
49 years of age, Musa told the Fatu Network that he cannot buy a ‘very small ram’ for his family.
” The ones they are selling for 12 thousand are very small. Only I can eat and finish the meat’, the downhearted Musa said. He added that he will leave for Abuko abattoir to see if situations will be different.
Ousman Manneh, another buyer at the Brikama Daral was able to get one for himself despite the prices of rams. He explained to TFN that he negotiated so hard for him to get it at 14 thousand dalasis. According to him, he was not expecting to buy it at that price and confessed that he will now struggle because he spent almost all his money.
“Now, I leave everything to God. I have spent almost all I have on myself. I cannot go home without this, my kids will not understand”, he uttered.
Speaking on behalf of the Brikama Daral Association, Buba Darboe, an executive member of the association told this medium that the price of rams is not expensive compared to the price they bought the rams in Senegal.
According to him, the value of the Gambia currency is low compared to the Senegalese CFA. He narrated that they have to change Gambian Dalasi into CFA and the least that they will buy a ram is 10 thousand dalasis in addition to transportation back home.
“The price is normal. We buy a ram for over 25 thousand CFA and the least price will be 10 thousand dalasis. When transporting them to the country, we have to pay for each D300 to D400 dalasis. If we add all of these and compare them to the amount we sell them, it is not expensive”, he said.
Lamin Touray, a ram seller said that the profit that they get from the sale of a ram is less than a thousand dalasi. He argued that they use a lot of energy and time to get rams. To Lamin, the price is not expensive.
He further explains that a sheep can be sold for 7 thousand dalasis but nobody will want that for a Tobaski ram. He asserted some buyers will come with an amount that will not get them the type they want.
