Blame is on heavy downpours and forestry officials who demand high charges.
Households in Douala metropolis are forced to delete eru from their menu. This action is rapidly becoming popular following plummeting eru supplies and astronomical prices. Even so, financially well-placed people are still unable procure required quantities, or they simply can’t find vestiges anywhere in the city. Buyers who compete well for the vegetable at times still have to wait for two days or so to get paltry supplies. Restaurants as well as makeshift eating spots have had to starve customers of this essential delicacy. “I’ve written ‘Pas de Eru, No Eru’ on the board to stop customers bogging me with requests for eru. I can’t even find it anymore except on good days. As a result there’s low patronage,” says Juliet Tatah, who runs a restaurant in Bonanjo.
Vegetable sellers at Central Market said the shortage can be explained: “The price of eru is determined by seasons. Eru is available mostly in the months of December, January, February and March and scarce with heavy rains, especially in the months July, August and September.” However, Sylvie, eru retailer, attributed the scarcity to high amounts (at least FCFA 100,000) charged by officials of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife on every eru consignment transported from harvest sites to the market; “Some of our colleagues have left the business because of this.” We also learnt that the tremendous increase in demand for eru is proportional to increase in the number of consumers. “Present eru supplies aren’t able to feed all the mouths desiring it because many Cameroonians now go for eru than before. It’s a real delicacy, it’s also valued abroad as a delicacy,” she disclosed.
Vehicles loaded with eru that used to enter the city everyday are a rare thing nowadays. Some vegetable retailers at Sandaga Market said a bundle of eru which sold at FCFA 200-300 in June now sells at FCFA 1,000. At Central Market sliced eru sold in a measurement pan costs FCFA 125-150 up from FCFA 50-75 in May and June. Eru comes principally from Centre, South, and Littoral, as well as from Ngambe.
