Stakeholders Predict New Food Prices as Dealers Sell Rice, Beans, Yam, Other Items at New Rate

• Farmers and agriculture stakeholders have predicted a sharp rise in food prices by mid-2025
• They disclosed that the I50-day import duty waiver on imported food would cause a rise in food prices
• According to them, food prices are rising again but relatively better than before the import waiver

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

Agriculture stakeholders have forecasted a new food cycle price increase by the middle of the year, due to a surge in food imports last year.

According to Foreign Trade in Goods data by the National Bureau of Statistics, the value of food imported in 2024 rose by 51.06% to N3.78 trillion.

Stakeholders blame FG’s food import duty

Stakeholders connected the spike in food import value to the Nigerian government’s 150-day duty-free import window on selected food items in July 2024 to reduce high prices.

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Farmers and some private sector players rose against the import waiver window, which recorded a consignment of 32,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand.

They revealed that before President Bola Tinubu’s import waiver, government policies restricted food imports.

Investigations revealed that the value of food imports reduced by 0.54% to N1.85 trillion in 2023 from N1.86 trillion in 2022.

The price of food items increased last year by 37.65% as market surveys reported that food prices were crashing in Kano’s Singer Market.

In March 2025, the Nigerian government praised the reported crash in food prices as a fulfilment of its promise to reduce food inflation.

FG food imports lead to crash in food prices

However, stakeholders have cautioned that the prices of essential food items will rise by midyear 2025.

Punch reports Kabir Ibrahim, the President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) as saying that despite the import duty waiver achieving its purpose, continuing imports to meet the country’s food needs is not sustainable.

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He warned that Nigeria cannot afford to import to achieve food security or availability.

He asked the country to work within itself to produce sufficient food to achieve food security.

Farmers lament the lack of inputs

The Chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Agriculture and Allied Group, Tunde Banjoko, said more investment in storage would be a lasting measure as food prices have begun skyrocketing.

He said the prices of garri, beans and other items have risen but relative to the former prices, are still moderate.

He said that harvest sales contributed to food price crashes, an indication of a bigger challenge of Nigeria’s weak food storage systems.

Prices of beans, rice, other food items crash by 40%

Legit.ng earlier reported that as Nigerians rejoice over the crash in food prices, grain hoarders are crying over a 40% dip in food costs between December 2024 and March 2025.

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Many traders bought grains in December for storage, hoping to sell at higher prices from February to March.

However, grain prices have continued to plummet as a 50kg bag of beans sold between N100,000 and N140,000 has crashed to N75,000 and N85,000.

Source: Legit.ng