Lagos traders lament low patronage as prices of staple food items drop

The prices of major staple food items have dropped in Lagos Markets compared to the prices recorded during the Christmas and New Year festivities.

The price of cooking gas, local and foreign rice, beans as well as tomatoes recorded a significant drop compared to the previous month’s hike in price due to the festive season in December.

However, major food items such as egg, melon, tubers such as yam and potatoes all recorded a month-on-month increase in price in the review month.

According to a market survey in some major markets in Lagos, the price of a 50kg of Royal Stallion rice decreased by 7.11 percent to sell for an average of N27,750 compared to N29,875 recorded in the previous month.

Likewise, the price of a big basket of tomatoes dropped by 22.1 percent to sell at an average of N13,625 compared to N17,500 recorded in December 2021.

The price of filling a 12.5kg of cooking gas dropped to an average of N7,850 as against an average of N8,650 recorded in the previous month.

In the same vein, the price of beans, particularly Oloyin, dropped by 15.1 percent to sell for an average of N34,375 in contrast to an average of N40,500 recorded in the previous month.

A crate of egg that was sold for an average of N1,838 in December also increased by 4.1 percent month-on-month to sell for an average of N1,913 in January 2022.

The National Bureau of Statistics released inflation figures for the month of December in the past week, printing a headline inflation rate of 15.63 percent and food inflation of 17.37 percent, both representing an uptick compared to the previous month.