THE prices of food commodities continue to pose a challenge for many Nigerians, despite a recent moderation in the prices of some food items.

To worsen the concern, some farmers, sellers, and market women have expressed worries about how fluctuating food prices are affecting the purchasing power of most Nigerians.

According to the latest monthly commodities price report by the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC) dated July 3,  the prices of commodities moderated in the just concluded month.

A 50 kilogramme bag of rice remains stable at N80,000, beans are slightly down by 5.06 per cent to N75,000, same with garri by 2.86 per cent to N32,000, tomatoes basket remains unchanged at N110,000, pepper is up by 25 per cent to N150,000, and onion is stable at N140,000.

“Domestic commodity prices are falling on weaker demand and consumer resistance,” the FDC report stated.

The food prices, which stakeholders – farmers, sellers, and buyers – still consider high in the market, raise concerns despite the sharp drop in inflation as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Since rebasing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in January, the inflation rate has dropped to 22.97 per cent from close to 40 per cent, but the prices of food items have remained high.

Analysts believe that this trend does not reflect the economic reality, as a lot of Nigerians’ purchasing power has been eroded, and there seems to be a disconnect between what the NBS data says and what the prices of foodstuffs are in markets.

Sellers, buyers lament

Muhammed Layan, a tomato seller at the Mile 12 market, the biggest perishable food market in Lagos, lamented the increasing prices of food items.

He told The ICIR that a basket of selected tomatoes, which he used to sell for about N25,000, N30,000, and N35,000, was being sold in the market at N70,000.

“The one (tomatoes) I’m selling, we bring it from the north, not from Cameroon. Over there, they sell it for N30,000 to N35,000, depending on where it is coming from,” Layan explained.

He noted that market prices could be different as some tomatoes are brought in from Jos, Kano, Kaduna, including in Jigawa, Benue, Gombe, Bauchi, Sokoto, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Zamfara, and Kogi in the north.

For Idris Isah, an onion seller also at the popular Mile 12 market, the increasing prices of food items have seen the price inched higher in the market to N150,000, depending on the size of the onions and fuelled by transportation costs.

“We transport onions from the north with N5,000 a bag,” said Isah, who hinted that he brings the onions he sells at the Mile 12 market from Maduguri, Borno state.

Lamenting the costs of food items in the market, a woman who gave her name as Mama Iyabo, said the prices are still high and wants them to come down considerably.

“Paint of rice is N7,000, and beans are N4,800. We want it to come well so that we can feed our family.

“We are not getting the money the way we are spending it on food,” she said.

Another woman, Ngozi Ndukwe, who also came to buy things in the market, expressed that if only the prices of food items could continue to come down, the hardship could be reduced.

“The hardship is too much. The government should do something about the price of food before we all die in this country,” she said, frustratedly.

Floods, insecurity threaten food supply

For most of the northern states where the huge agricultural foods are produced and supplied to the south, there has been concern over the spread of insecurity, as well as incessant flooding that is impacting food supply.

In its recent flood alert, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) noted that 15 states were at high risk of flooding, including Kogi, Imo, Enugu, Adamawa, Taraba, Borno, Zamfara, Katsina, and the Federal Capital Territory, The ICIR reported.

At the time, a devastating flooding incident in communities Mokwa, Niger state, have left over 3,000 residents displaced, 2,000 homes destroyed, and critical infrastructure, including three bridges and several roads, farmlands affected, The ICIR had also reported.

The region has also been battered with insecurity, which has led to the killings of thousands, and farmers are scared of going back to their farmlands because of the herdsmen-farmers crisis.

The recent insecurity situation in Benue State, following fresh attacks in the Makurdi and Katsina-Ala local government areas that led to the reported killing of over 200 people from the food basket state, raised further concerns about adequate food supply to the south.

In a statement on June 17, the director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Chinyere Almona, expressed concern that the recent herdsmen-farmers clashes in the middle-belt region, alongside flooding disasters, are indicators of a looming shortfall in food harvest.

“These shocks pose significant risks to food availability and prices, which could drive food inflation — an essential component of the headline inflation index — in the third and fourth quarters of 2025,” she said.

Farmers’ association shares worries

Speaking to The ICIR about the relative drop in some foodstuffs and scarcity of some others, the National Secretary of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Yunusa Halidu, said the factors are both internal and external.

He specifically hinted that the sharp drop in the price of beans lately was not because of a bumper harvest.

According to Halidu, farmers are yet to start planting beans, and nowhere in all the 19 Northern states, including some parts of the South, has planting commenced.

Check by The ICIR shows that in Nigeria, the planting and harvesting periods for beans vary depending on the region’s climate and rainfall patterns, with a growing cycle of 60 to 90 days.

In the south, farmers usually plant beans twice a year, beginning around March or April and ready for harvest by June or July, while in the north, farmers typically plant beans in June or July, and are harvested between September and October.

“The reason for the crash in the price is just because of the fear of the pronouncement of the federal government of last year or earlier this year, for the importation of grain,” Halidu said.

He explained that a lot of people have the fear that when the federal government boosts the market with these commodities, the price is going to crash.

“It is a disadvantage for a lot of farmers, people like us who produced at high cost last year, but just for us to hear that this year the federal government makes a pronouncement that they are going to import grain.

“It was good for the consumer, but not good for the producers because a producer wants to produce and make a profit, especially people who are into business,” Halidu lamented.

On the scarcity of tomatoes and peppers in the market, Halidu said it was because of their seasonal nature, which makes the prices cheap during the harvest period and expensive when the harvest is over.

He noted that tomatoes are harvested in the north two or three times annually, and the same is true with pepper, with the help of irrigation farming.

He, however, expressed worries that the production capacity has been very low, which may not be unconnected with the insecurity in the country, frightening most farmers from going back to their farmlands.

“So, that is why the prices of those items are always up a couple of times because of the low production capacity, especially rice,” Halidu said.

Further expressing concern about Nigerians’ appetite for foreign goods, Halidu said most Nigerians prefer foreign rice to locally produced rice, causing the frequent fluctuation in price.

The prices of beans, which have dropped to about N80,000, are a sign of things to come, the chief executive officer, Graeme Blaque, Zeal Akaraiwe, said on the Arise programme, ‘Business Week’ on Saturday, July 5.

“Prices are down significantly, which I’m happy about because consumer prices need to come down from where they are,” he said.

Blaque added that if the price could be stable, in practice, it would be great to hedge against volatility.