Passion fruit supply up, orange prices down

(Credit: Sauda Nabatanzi)

LATEST MARKET PRICES

KAMPALA - After a low supply late last year, you can be sure to enrich your fruit cocktail with more passion fruit following a rise in the supply of the juicy delight.

The fruit, rich in carbohydrates, carotene, vitamin C and iron, is appearing in larger quantities in city markets lately.

The so-called Kawanda type is dominating the markets compared to the ‘Kasese’ and ‘Masaka’ types, according to Sylvia Nampijja, a fruit seller at Nakasero Market in the city centre.

If you want a whole sack of ‘Kawanda’ passion fruits – the large type –, you have to part with as much as sh200,000. But if you prefer buying on the small scale, four of this type cost sh1,000. Well, of course enyongezza [extra] can only come when you’ve bought in bulk.

In downtown, at Owino Market to be more precise, a sack of the ‘Masaka’ and ‘Kasese’ types – small passion fruits – goes for sh380,000 while sh1,000 will get five or six passion fruits, depending on who you are buying from.

Vendors say the prices have been quite the same since the beginning of the year.

What about oranges?

Meanwhile, orange lovers can delight in the news that orange prices have dropped in city markets.

In Owino, a sack of local breed oranges ranges from sh110,000 to sh120,000 while a basket of the citrus fruit costs sh10,000.

For the ‘farm’ breed, a sack goes for sh150,000 – highly than its local counterpart.

If you are buying on the streets, where vendors target mainly people buying in small quantities, you will get four or five oranges for sh1,000.

Atuhaire Rita, a vendor in Owino, attributes the low prices to the rainy season where the consumption is low compared to the sunny season.

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