The Association of Table Water Producers of Nigeria have expressed their concern on the surging price of sachet water popularly known as pure water, which is currently priced at N50 per sachet, the association further stated that pure water might be sold at N100 each, if urgent measures are not taken.
In a press conference held in Lagos on Tuesday, the President of the Association, Clementina Ativie asserted that manufacturers have been funding pure water factories from personal pockets or borrowed capital due to the high cost of production material. She further states that the association is at risk of liquidation, if proper measures are not put in place to ensure their continuance in business.
The industry has been faced with a lot of challenges recently including, High cost of diesel, lack of power supply and rising cost of production materials.
She expressed that it is not in their intention to inflate the price of sachet water, knowing that water is an essential of life and should be available to the common man at a reasonable price. But, the high cost of production materials left them no other choice than to increase the price of sachet water or to fold up.
According to her “As of last December, we were buying materials (nylon) for N1,100 per kg. The 6kg of nylon is now N3,600/N3,700. The cost of treatment is also high. The increase in prices of these materials comes at three times in one week. It is also difficult for us to increase the price of water.
With cost escalating and loans hard to come by, we find ourselves at crossroads”
She also explained, “when diesel was priced at N220 per litre, a sachet of pure water was N10. Now with diesel price soaring to N1700 per litre or more, the ratio is glaring”
We don’t want Nigerians to buy pure water for more than N20 per sachet,
We urge Nigerians to bear with us as we navigate these challenging times, we don’t want pure water to become unaffordable or leave the system”
The Association laments that, the surging price of production has led to a lot of financial constraints, which have given rise to the need for adjustment, due to the unsustainable cost environment. They also emphasized their reluctance to increase the price, while pleading with Nigerians to bear with them as the state of affairs of the country has significantly affected their operations.
However, the impending price hike has been met with utter displeasure in the hearts of both retailers and consumers.
Nigerians have expressed their unwillingness to buy pure water at ₦100, saying that they would rather boil water at home for drinking and carry it around in a water bottle than buy at such exorbitant price, whilst claiming that their bore-hole water is even far better than some pure water.
While retailers have expressed their concern about the cost of purchasing pure water and the risk of not making profit due to poor amount of sales.
Thus, the high cost of pure water will in turn reduce the purchasing power of some retailers to purchase pure water for sale and of some consumers to buy from retailers.
The increase in price of pure water, if effected would have an adverse effect on the production and sale of purewater in Nigeria, because there would be less demand for sachet water due to unwillingness of both consumers and retailers to purchase pure water at such exorbitant price.
This adverse effect poses a greater risk of pure water business going out of the market due to low demand ratio as compared with production ratio. Which in turn will lead to, the unemployment of a large number of youths and increase in crime rates due to unemployment.
In light of all this, we enjoin our government and other regulatory bodies to give greater consideration to the industry through the provision of appropriate measures to stabilize production cost and improve access to financing.
