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by Fatoumata Jaiteh.
As the Mulsim feast of Eid-Ul Adha gets closer, the price of rams continues to sky rocket on a daily basis. The Digest News team visited the Abuko Abbatoire on Monday to see how ram sales are faring this year.
According to the livestock owners at the Abuko Central Abbatoire an average Gambian has to spend nothing less than D10,000 to secure a ram.
One of the ram dealers at the Abbatoire, Gibbie Sowe disclosed the reasons for the increase in the price of rams in general. He said most of the rams sold in The Gambia are purchased from Senegal, and those people also bought these rams from the herdsmen from Mali or Mauritania. He observed that in such cases, there is the tendency of profit gaining because of the middlemanship involved.
According to him, the increase in the value of the CFA is another reason for the price hike, among other issues.
Njanko Ndow, a livestock dealer complaint of thieves at the Central Abbatoire. He said there are a lot of theft cases at the abbatoire and called on the government to intervene.
The ram sellers called on the general public to understand the issues involved in the business and to come out to buy their rams earlier before the Tobaski.