Ggaba Market

Just round the corner from my home is Ggaba Market. The market is right on the shores of Lake Victoria. It's a hive of activity from daybreak to dusk: every morning, fishermen arrive with their catches of tilapia, nile perch and mukene (a sort of freshwater whitebait). At the same time, fresh produce is ferried across the lake every morning: piles of mangoes, potatoes, pineapples, tomatoes, beans, water melons and a surprisingly wide variety of other fruits and vegetables. For anyone brought up on European or North American supermarket fare, the produce looks sub-standard, imperfect, but it is wonderfully wholesome, tasty and fresh.

Charcoal and firewood is delivered in overloaded Fuso and Canter trucks, along with fresh matooke (cooking bananas), luridly green. Old Corolla estate cars arrive, crammed with live "traditional" chickens and larger off-layer hens ready for the slaughter. And all around, ungainly marabou storks stand, stiff-legged, ready to flap and walk their way to any easy pickings.

From early, other traders set up small braziers and charcoal stoves to prepare fast food, Kampala-style. Fried fish, samosas, fresh beans, steamed matooke and the much-loved breakfast "Rolex" - a calory-packed chapati filled with fried egg and vegetables, rolled up pancake style for easy consumption.

I really enjoy my occasional visits to the market: quite apart from the unalloyed pleasure of buying fresh produce, it provides a valuable insight into real economic and business life. Yesterday I bought onions, pineapple, passion fruit, leeks, parsley, potatoes and spinach. But the drought in Uganda is pushing prices, especially of leaf vegetables and pineapples, high. Fish, too, has increased in price, with a knock-on effect on other meats. Lake fishing, like so many other activities, is poorly regulated, with the inevitable consequence of over-fishing. Uganda's fish export industry - once a source of valuable foreign exchange - is dying and catches are diminishing, and it is yet to be replaced by fish-farming on a significant scale.

In the midst of daily trading, it is hard for market stallholders to think about the long term: years of experience and intense competition ensures that only the best traders - who price competitively and estimate demand accurately - can earn a living, but there is a lot of anxiety about the future. Prices are increasing and money supply is not: these are worrying times at Ggaba Market.