No more 3k: Yam Tuber Sells for New Price as Inflation Hits Hard
- Due to its high cost, yam, a staple food, seems to have been eliminated from the menus of many families
- A yam tuber can now feed a family of five for N10,000, up from N3,000 or N3,500 around the same time last year
- As a result, These days, people carefully consider their actions and financial decisions that affect them
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has over 3-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
Yam, one of the main mainstays, appears to have been removed from many families' menus due to its expensive price.
Source: Getty Images
A family of five may now be fed with a yam tuber for N10,000, compared to N3,000 or N3,500 around the same period last year, BusinessDay reported.
Numerous Nigerians' choices have been adversely impacted by the harsh economic circumstances that the nation is currently facing in numerous ways. Their eating choices show this, as the cost of food has risen beyond their means.
The ongoing pressure on the cost of staple foods has caused financial holes in many Nigerian households, leaving a large number of people undernourished and hungry.
It has become increasingly difficult for families to satiate the needs and demands of both adults and children due to the sharp increase in the price of yam, in particular.
The recipes that include yam are hard for local food merchants to maintain. In the same way, yam dealers do not find it advantageous, neither as wholesalers nor retailers.
Retailers have resorted to selling yam in pieces to make it more accessible for people who cannot purchase a full tuber, in an effort to both retain customers and keep the market afloat in light of the fall in both buyers and sellers.
Mama Ogieva, a yam vendor at the Ijesha market in Surulere, Lagos, said that "many customers no longer buy yam as much, and as often as they bought last year."
“Not everyone who was used to buying a whole tuber of the big-sized yams can afford it now because it’s now very expensive. I used to sell the big tubers for around 5000 naira last year but as I speak to you today, it is exactly double the price, N10,000.
“In the course of offloading and shading the goods, we often end up having lots of broken tubers which eventually brings satisfaction to some customers due to the price hike.
“That’s the reason we now cut some tubers into smaller sizes, some into halves, some into smaller pieces depending on the amount the customers have. Besides doing that to clear out stock and avoid loss due to decay and waste, it also seems to be making a lot more sense than whole tubers nowadays.”
She went on to say that people are thinking carefully about what they do and how they spend their money these days. They're against waste.
According to her,
“Another reason why people buy the ‘cut yam’ is to avoid buying a whole tuber only to find out some parts are bad. But you know that this is a result of not having enough money. When people had money and could afford tubers of yam, they did not bother if the tubers were going to be bad inside of not. They could afford it then.”
Speaking on the implication of the high cost for the sellers, she said,
“Before now, two or three people could contribute to buy a full truckload of yam tubers comfortably, not anymore. Now, big yam stores buy a truckload of yams in pairs of 5s, 6s, and as many as 10s.”
Data shows states with highest food prices
Legit.ng reported that the average cost of tomatoes, garri, and beans jumped by 205.36% in May 2024 compared to the same month in 2023, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
The average cost of one kilogram of tomatoes climbed annually in May 2024 from N498.34 during the same period in 2023, according to the NBS Price Watch for a select few food items in May of that year.
The monthly rate increased from N1,123 in April 2024 by 31.71%.
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Source: Legit.ng
