(ERGO) – A steep rise in vegetable prices in Somaliland over the past three months has forced hundreds of small traders in Hargeisa to close the stalls that provide income for their families.
Farhiya Ismail Ali’s vegetable stall in Gobanimo market closed at the end of April after soaring wholesale prices made it impossible for her to continue trading. Since then, she has struggled to provide enough food and water for her family of seven.
“The loss of my business has affected us badly because everyone in my family depended on me. We struggle to find even one meal a day. Sometimes our neighbours help us after the shops we used to buy from stopped giving us goods on credit. Life has become very difficult. I am the eldest in the family and my younger siblings look to me for everything,” she told Radio Ergo.
Farhiya became responsible for the household in 2025 after her mother died. Her mother’s small milk business had supported the family, leaving Farhiya to care for her four younger siblings and her 73-year-old father, who is too elderly to work.
She can no longer afford medication for her father, who has chronic diabetes and stomach illness. She relies on an uncle for a dollar or two to help buy medicine.
Wholesale prices have more than doubled. Tomatoes rose from $1.50 to $5 per kilo; onions from 50 cents to $2.50 to $3; and cabbage rose from 40 cents to $1.50 to $2.
Unable to repay $150 owed to wholesalers, she can no longer obtain stock to sell.
“The vegetables that became most expensive were tomatoes and onions, which were my best-selling items. I haven’t been back to my stall for a long time because of the debts I owe. The wholesalers who supplied me want their money, but I have nothing to pay them with,” she said.
She looked without success for cleaning work around Hargeisa. Her relatives living in rural areas have little means to assist them.
Three of her younger siblings were sent home from school in May after she failed to pay their monthly fees of $7 each. She owes two months’ rent of $25 for the family’s single-room home, which has neither electricity nor running water.
The family borrows one jerrycan of water each day from neighbours and uses a torch for light at night because they cannot afford electricity.
Farhiya’s family moved to Hargeisa in 2024 after drought wiped out their remaining herd of about 200 camels and goats in Togdheer region.
The prolonged drought and poor rainfall have reduced local agricultural production, while imports from neighbouring Ethiopia have also declined, driving vegetable prices sharply higher.
Wholesale trader Asha Abdullahi Ahmed said local farms had produced far less because repeated rainy seasons failed.
“We lost both the previous Gu [seasonal rains] and this year’s Gu rains. Tomatoes, lettuce, onions and cabbages became scarce because farmers couldn’t plant without water. At the same time, fewer potatoes have been coming from Ethiopia because production has also fallen,” Asha said.
Transport costs have increased because of higher fuel prices, while customers are buying much less than before. Many retailers either purchase smaller quantities or have left the market altogether.
Asha now imports onions from Yemen at between $1.50 and $2 per kilogram – three to four times the previous price of locally grown onions, which used to cost about 50 cents.
“In the 15 years I’ve been trading vegetables, I’ve never seen the market this bad. Prices are so high that people can no longer afford to buy. Business has slowed dramatically, yet the people supplying us still expect immediate payment,” Asha stated.
She is owed nearly $4,000 by customers and owes her suppliers about $1,000. If prices remain high, she fears her business will collapse.
Retail trader Halima Abdi Yusuf is facing similar difficulties. The mother of nine said her daily income of about $7 from her home-based vegetable stall had virtually disappeared. Although the stall remains open, there are days when she returns home without selling a single item.
During the past three months, customers have bought around $650 worth of vegetables on credit that she does not expect to recover soon. At the same time, she owes wholesalers another $300.
“Everything has become expensive. Many poor families who used to buy vegetables either ask for credit or stop coming altogether. The vegetables I buy at high prices remain unsold because nobody can afford them. Our livelihoods have collapsed,” Halima said.
Her husband has been unemployed for five months after construction work dried up, leaving the family entirely dependent on a business that no longer generates enough income. In June, four of her children were sent home from primary school after she failed to pay two months of fees totalling $80.
Families like Halima’s have long struggled to make ends meet in Hargeisa, but the sharp rise in food prices has deepened their hardship.
For many small traders across the city, the combination of prolonged drought, reduced vegetable production, expensive imports, rising transport costs, and weak consumer purchasing power has turned once-viable businesses into unsustainable livelihoods, with no financial assistance available to help them recover.
