Nigerians Troubled As Price Of Bag Of Rice Increases Again (See New Price)

Nigerians Troubled As Price Of Bag Of Rice Increases Again (See New Price)

Nigerians have lamented that the price of rice and other food items is increasing every day in the country.

A bag of rice (local or foreign) that sold for about N7,000 around 2016 has jumped to as high as N45,000- N50,000 per 50 kg for some brands.

Apart from rice, a sachet of tomato that used to sell for N50 now sells for as high as N150 or N200 while a loaf of bread has risen from N250 to N900, across major cities in the country within the last five to ten years.

A sector that has been badly affected by the lingering inflation is poultry, whose products such as eggs, and chicken/turkey meat are relied upon by millions for basic protein needs.

A kilogramme of chicken that previously sold for N800 now sells for N2000, while a crate of eggs that sold for N700 now sells within the range of N1800 -N2000 and above in the markets.

Food prices in Nigeria are at their increase levels ever as the country faces its worst food inflation in 17 years, Onyxnewsng learnt.

Nigeria’s inflation rate surged to 20.52 per cent in August, the highest since September 2005. The figure rose from 19.64 per cent recorded in July, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Food inflation rose to 23.12 per cent in August 2022 on a year-on-year basis, representing a 2.82 per cent increase when compared to 20.30 per cent in August 2021.

“This rise in the food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products like potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, meat, oil and fat,” the report said.

Onyxnewsng reports that main markets in the different regions of the country have shown that the prices of food items increased by over 100 per cent in the last five years.

The rise is evident in the price differences observed in all classes of food almost on a daily basis, leaving Nigeria’s large population of poor citizens to spend more to get food and key ingredients amidst stagnated income.

The survey shows how several factors have contributed to the surge in food prices, and how the government’s efforts to upscale domestic food production to force down prices have yielded little or no impact in solving the problem.

In interviews, food traders, farmers, and processors said the rise in the prices of key food items and ingredients is largely triggered by the instability of the exchange rate of the naira, insecurity and high cost of transportation of products within and across states in the country.

One of the traders, Mrs Emmanuel Anike, who has been in the business of selling food items, like rice, and beans among others in Bisi Egbeyemi market, Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State, for over 20 years, said prices of food items have doubled in the last five years.

“The way the prices of food items have doubled over the past years is very discouraging,” Mrs Anike said.

She explained that a bag (100kg) of beans that was selling for N12,000 in Ekiti in 2018 is now sold at the rate of N58,000 and above.

Like rice and beans, a 50 kg of wheat flour used in bread making and other confectionery sold for N11,000 in 2018 now goes for N31,000 to N35,000 this year, the trader said.

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“In 2018, I sold 1kg of wheat flour for N250 but 1kg is now N1000,” she added.

Mrs Anike lamented that due to the increase in the prices of foodstuffs, some of her consumers can no longer afford the normal quantity of food items they used to buy anymore.

“Over the years the prices of food items are becoming so discouraging in a country where the minimum wage can no longer buy a bag of rice,” she said.