Dumsor is collapsing our business – Asafo cold store operators lament

Some Cold store operators at the Asafo Market in Kumasi in the Ashanti region who use electricity for their operations are beginning to feel the impact of the persistent power outages in the Ashanti region.

According to them, they have had to dispose of hundreds of cartons of spoilt fish due to weeks of unreliable power supply. The traders have also been saddled with the cost of repairing their huge industrial fridges that have broken down as a result of the power challenges.

Speaking to OTEC news’ reporters Ruth Catherine Takyi and Aishatu Yakubu in an interview on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, some of the operators are angry that the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has failed to issue a timetable and also failed to truthfully acknowledge that the Ashanti region is suffering from severe power cuts.

"We are in a serious debt because not even the amount of money used for the business is not gained and to talk of profits as eventually more of the fishes are thrown away due to spoilage, one of the traders who spoke to Otecnews fumed".

To them, they have leaned solemnly on this work of theirs as they support their families with the little money earned from it therefore what will become of them if this problem has gotten out of hand.

They suggested that if possible, they should be alerted on when to have power and when not to in order to know when to install or not to install their refrigerators to reduce poor sales.

"Our refrigerators have been damaging too as a result of this same issue, they added".

They appealed to the government to intervene as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) help fix the problem.

They, therefore, spoke out of pain that, the ECG should continue doing this evil act if only they are intentionally causing that.

Some of the customers added that, they sometimes send the fish back after reaching home to find out that, they bought spoiled ones.