Jubilation As Food Prices Fall
The prices of garri, a major staple food, and tomatoes, have dropped significantly in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States, bringing some respite to many households in the area.
A survey carried out by the News Agency of Nigeria in major markets in Awka, Anambra, showed that a bag of garri now costs N75,000 as against N90,000 in June.
Also, a basket of tomatoes, which sold for N100,000 in June, has come down to between N80,000 and N85,000.
A paint bucket of the commodity came down from N12,000 in June to between N7,000 and N6,000.
Similarly, the price of a bag of chili pepper reduced from N120,000 to N60,000, while a paint bucket that sold for N8,000 now sells for N3,500.
A paint bucket of Cayenne pepper, known as Sombo, dropped from
N15,000 to N10,000.
Furthermore, a paint bucket of crayfish, which was sold at N6,500, now goes for N5,000.
A bag of onions now sells for N110,000, as against N130,000 in June.
A bag of potatoes also came down from N18,000 to N13,000.
A new yam tuber now sells for between N3,000 and N5,000, depending on the size.
As of June, similar sizes of yams sold for between N2,000 and N5,000 per tuber.
A foodstuff seller, Mrs Chinenye Uba, attributed the drop in the prices of yam, potatoes, tomatoes, pepper and onions to the harvest season.
According to her, the prices of other food items, such as beans and rice, are still high in the market.
A 50kg bag of beans, which was sold for N240,000 in June, now goes for N260,000.
Uba said the high cost of transportation was largely responsible for the high cost of foodstuffs because they were mostly brought in from other states.
“I believe that if the Federal Government can reduce the price of fuel, prices of food items will also come down,” she said.
A farmer, Mr Godwin Mbadugha, attributed the gradual decrease in the prices of foodstuffs to season’s variations.
“Many food items are being harvested during this period; so, when there is an increase in supply, prices will likely reduce.
“Farmers return to farm during the rainy season, which is when we usually experience hike in prices but during the harvest period, prices come down,” Mbadugha said.
Meanwhile, Gov. Chukwuma Soludo on August 5, launched the Anambra “Farm to Feed” campaign as part of his administration’s efforts to tackle hunger and food insecurity in the state.
Soludo said the campaign was aimed at encouraging and mobilising residents, especially youths and women, to venture into farming in order to boost food and cash crops production in the state.
“The farm-to-feed campaign is a simple partnership deal with farmers to end hunger within the next 12 months.
“If everyone starts producing, the pressure on food prices will reduce,” the governor had said.
During the launch, tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, watermelon, onions, okra, carrot, yam, potatoes and oil palm seedlings were freely distributed to more than 5,000 farmers.
In Ebonyi, prices of foodstuffs have continued to soar in Abakaliki, the state capital.
NAN reports that a paint bucket of iron beans sells between N9,500 and N10,500.
A 100-kg bag of beans sells for as high as N225,000, N205,000 and N180,000, depending on the type.
NAN reports that price reduction only applied to garri, a major staple food in many households.
A dealer, Mr Jacob Ngwu, said that a bag of garri sells for between N24,000 and N28,000, depending on the grade and colour.
This is against the previous price of between N35,000 and N40,000 per bag in June.
“A paint bucket of the commodity is sold between N1,800 and N2,500,” Ngwu said.
The price of “local foreign” rice has remained high, as a 25kg bag goes for between N29,500 and N36,000, depending on the grade.
The same thing applies to yam, which has yet to record any decrease in price in the state because the new yam festival has not been performed.
A yam dealer, Mr Steve Okoh, told NAN that a tuber of old yam still sells for as high as N3,000, N5,000 and N10,000, depending on its size.
He said: “The Izzi clan, which is Abakaliki, the state capital, has yet to celebrate its new yam festival.
“This makes it difficult for us to bring new yam to any market in the state.
“You cannot sell new yam in any of the markets in Izzi land until the new yam festival has been celebrated,” Okoh said.
Some stakeholders in agricultural sub-sectors in the state said that the continued rise in the price of food items remained worrisome to many households.
In Enugu State, the prices of garri, new yam, tomatoes and onions also recorded a significant fall.
A retailer at the New Market, Enugu, Nkiruka Chukwu, told NAN that a 100kg bag of white garri, which previously sold for N134,400, has come down to N105,000.
Chukwu said that 100kg bag of yellow garri, which was sold between N168,000 and N160,000, now goes for N142,000 and N147,000, respectively.
An onions and tomatoes dealer, Adamu Musa, said a bag of onions previously sold at N85,000 is now N80,000, while a basket of fresh tomatoes sold at N60,000 had dropped to N50,000.
A yam dealer, Mr Izunna Nduka, told NAN that the old yam had gradually gone out of stock, while the new yams are gradually being brought into the market.
Nduka said that a heap of new yam, consisting of 100 tubers, goes for N450,000, while one tuber goes for between N3,000 and N5,000.
NAN recalls that by this season in 2023, a medium size tuber of the new yam was sold between N2,200 and N2,500.
Nduka explained that the cost of transporting 100 tubers from the north skyrocketed from between N600,000 and N650,000 to N1.6 million.
He also said that 60 tubers, which previously cost N300,000, now cost between N650,000 and N700,000.
“Aside from this, we pay between N50,000 and N150,000 to produce officials, youths and security agencies on the highways.
NAN reports that the prices of other staple foods have gone beyond the reach of an average resident of the state.
Some of the traders who spoke to NAN attributed the increase in prices of foodstuffs to high cost of transportation and poor harvest, occasioned by the lack of adequate rainfall, in addition to indiscriminate levies on the highways.
“When we add all these expenses, with our little profit, they combine to increase the price of yam in the market,” Nduka said.
He, however, hoped that prices of foodstuffs might come down in a few months time when many states would have begun to harvest their yams.
He said that the only yams in Enugu markets were bought from Ogbaru and Anam in Anambra, Ebonyi and Benue States.
A plantain seller at Mayor Market, Mrs Helen Uchendu, said that the price of plantain had also increased, like every other food item.
Uchendu said that a bunch of plantains now goes for between N7,000 and N9,000, depending on the size, as against N4,000 and N6,000 in 2023.
NAN further reports that a bag of dry maize has gone up from N85,000 to N92,000 in August, while 50kg of “local foreign” rice sold at N65,000, a few months ago, now goes for N86,200.
The Director, Enugu State Agricultural Development Programme, Dr Ogbonna Onyeishi, said that the state lacked modern storage facilities for agricultural produce to check post harvest losses.
