Coronavirus and soaring price of sanitisers

TRACKING_____From super stores, Boluke Pharmacy, to many more shops and pharmacies, hand sanitisers seemed to have been sold out as consumers’ demands escalate since the outbreak of Coronavirus.

Investigations last week revealed that a majority of pharmacies and shops have run out of stock, however, there are one or two corner shops who still have hand sanitisers and disposable face masks but increased the price by over 1000 per cent.

When our reporter visited Ikeja and Surulere shopping malls last Saturday, she could not see hand sanitisers on the shelves. One of the supervisors who pleaded anonymity said they were expecting stock as they had sold out. “We placed order for more stock because many consumers started demanding sanitisers and the disposable protective equipment immediately the news of Coronavirus was made public.”

Counselling the reporter whom he thought to be a potential customer to come back next week, he regretted that the order which the company placed for hand sanitiser over one week ago was yet to arrive.

At Boluke Pharmacy, Awolowo Road, Ikeja, and the other outlets of the fast rising pharmacy, the story was the same. As at last week Friday, consumers who wanted sanitiser were being asked to come back next week as there was none in stock.

Speaking with Mr. Femi Adebayo, one of the top management staff of the pharmacy on phone, he explained that none of their outlets has sanitiser. “The quantity we sold since the announcement of the outbreak of covid-19 is unprecedented. Within one week, we sold what we could not sell in a year.”

On why hand sanitiser had suddenly become scarce, “Most of the brands are imported from China. Most of them are manufactured in China because of cheap labour and China has not been exporting as much since the outbreak of this disease in the Chinese city of Wahun.

“Unfortunately, the few brands that come from the UK and USA are much more expensive that retailers hardly make any profit after selling them. The profit margin is very low, so we prefer buying from China,” explained Adebayo.

The story was the same in most other popular shops visited. A majority of them had sold out without the expected products to restock. However, a few corner shops, off Balogun busstop, Awolowo Road, Ikeja, still had stock which they were selling at very high prices. The disposable mouth mask which sold previously for between N50-N100 now sells for N1,000 for just one. Meanwhile, a bottle of 100ml hand sanitiser formerly sold for about N500, in the same shop sells for N2,300. “We usually buy from Church Street, Idu-ganrun, Asagbon and Atin Street. In Idumota, Lagos, and if you check in those markets, you will find that the price of sanitiser, face masks and hand gloves have gone up.”

Though at Randell Pharmacy, Ikeja, where there was no sanitiser, the price of mouth mask went up only from N30 to N300.00 “It is not our fault that the prices of these things have gone up,” explained a senior pharmacist at the pharmacy. “We were buying a pack of 50 pieces of face mask for N2,000 and now we buy it for as much as N8,000 from Idumota Lagos.”

Store manager at The Source, a fast rising supermarket in Surulere, Mr. Obinna Ike, said he was blaming pharmaceutical dealers for the escalating price of the protective equipments and the scarcity of hand sanitisers. “You know our Nigerian traders, they are simply hoarding the products to create artificial scarcity so that the price will go very high.”

Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, (FCCPC), Mr Babatunde Irukera, described the practice as a violation of both moral codes and extant laws.

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Irukera advised consumers to be vigilant and report such unreasonable or arbitrary exploitative price increase or trade practices to the commission by telephone on 08056002020 or 08056003030, or by email at [email protected]

However, a big distributor of pharmaceutical products in Idumota, Mr. Mike Oti, dismissed allegations that traders were hoarding the products in order to create scarcity and increase price. “Most of these products are imported from China. Only few of the brands come from Europe and USA. Since the outbreak of this COVID-19, China has not been exporting products and we importers have not been finding it easy to import anything from there.