The government’s recent move of raising prices of cooking gas has led the people in the countryside to resort to using wood for baking bread in their clay oven. The people there have decided to go back in taking care of planting trees as a source of charcoal used in cooking food and making tea.
Local sources have told the Yemen Times that the new tendency has been very necessary to dispense with gas-heated ovens especially the rise in prices of cooking gas from 200 riyals to 400 riyals and in some areas the gas cylinder price could reach at 70 riyals. A citizen from countryside areas says the people there stopped buying gas household cylinders because they do not afford it after the price dose recently put into force in the country.
Clay ovens for baking bread have now seen a big boom in the market as the people in the countryside have stopped buying gas for their daily uses because gas cylinders prices jumped by 100 percent in addition to the rise in prices of other oil products.
An owner of a shop in Ibb selling clay ovens used for baking bread said he was nowadays selling two to three ovens a day while before the new rise in prices of oil products he was not selling that number in a week. Information coming from some small towns mentions that residents of those towns rushed to buy those ovens because of their affordable low prices.
This situation means that the population has got much affected by price rise. A citizen from the town of Zabid said, “We consume eight gas cylinders a month because we are a big family and our income is limited and cannot afford that increase in prices.
So I did not find any choice but to return to our old oven. I would gather fire wood or buy it because that would be less costing.”
Under statements of the government of supplying enough gas to meet needs of the market, nevertheless, the gas shortage crisis is aggravating and maybe it would rise further. Those citizens who shifted to using firewood mention that they no longer much concerned about gas availability as long as they have decided to use firewood and forget about having the gas fuel.
They on the other hand blame the government for neglecting for the past years taking care of trees and forests that are considered a major source of firewood.
