New Price Emerges as Beans Crashes by Almost 50%, Hoarders Unable to Recover Capital

• In an interesting turn of events, the price of beans has sustained a downward momentum for over three months
• The current price is more than 50% lower than the price as of January 2025, and hoarders find themselves in a fix
• In 2024, beans sold for as high as N12,000 to N15,000 for a 5-litre paint bucket, depending on the type, but that is now history

Legit.ng journalist Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon has over a decade of experience in business reporting across digital and mainstream media.

Beans traders are left in a fix, with mounting debts to repay, as their speculations of further price increases have backfired.

Instead of the anticipated increase, 2025 has seen the price of beans crash gradually by more than 50% from the price it sold for last year.

Not only is there no chance of making the anticipated profits, but the traders may no longer be able to recover the capital after hoarding their beans in the hope of higher prices.

Read also

NNPCL finally gets buyer, set to ship first crude cargo to Europe

The traders had bulk purchased bags of beans at the beginning of the year in the hopes of selling with huge margins later in the year, but every successive month since then has seen the prices drop even further.

From January, when a mudu of beans sold between N3,000 and N3,200, prices have dropped, now selling between N1,800 and N2,000 in Abuja,

Hoarders lament losses as beans prices crash

A storage trader in Abuja, Amaka Innocent, told The SUN that she had taken a loan from a Cooperative group she belonged to, and bought beans with the hopes of making lots of profit when prices go up.

“Last year, beans were very expensive. People bought beans for N4,000 to N3,500. I had hoped that the price would continue to go up. So, I took a loan from my cooperative, bought and stored. But now, Wholesalers sell beans for N2,000 and even N1,800. I am at a loss here. How do I repay my loan?”

Read also

Major garment producer Bangladesh says US buyers halting orders

Mr. Peter Chukwudi, also a trader at Garki Modern market, narrated that he had bought five bags of beans in anticipation of a price increase like was experienced last year.

He lamented that selling at the current price would not even give him half the capital he spent to purchase it, adding that if the price reduction continues, traders may not want to plant beans this year.

A Legit.ng survey shows that in Lagos, a 5-litre paint bucket of honey beans (oloyin), which sold for N10,000 to N11,000 in January, has now dropped to N8,000 to N8,500. This item sold as high as N15,000 in 2024.

The species known as drum (olotu) beans has also crashed from N9,000 in January 2025 to about N6,000 or slightly less by the first week of April.

Interestingly, this product sold as high as N12,000 between June and September 2024, before the price drop started in December.

Read also

Refiners: Petrol prices can drop to N350 per litre at filling stations, 3 issues identified

Farmers give reasons for reduced price

Kabir Ibrahim, the president of the All Farmers Association, noted that the price reduction is a result of reduced purchasing power among Nigerians.

He pointed out that beans were not among the items to be granted import waivers, but the increase in price of beans last year meant that many families could no longer afford them, causing demand to drop.

With the reduced demand, prices crashed, and Ibrahim noted that even if farmers are not happy with the price, they would have to sell at the current price rather than take a 100% loss.

However, Ibrahim predicted that prices would go up again by August.

Price of beans, others drop as Ramadan starts

Legit.ng earlier reported that the price of key food items like beans, maize, sorghum, peanuts, and millet dropped by up to 30%.

This was just at the beginning of the Ramadan season, and in Potiskum, Yobe State, the price of a 100kg bag of millet fell from N80,000 to N60,000, while red beans, previously sold for N120,000, dropped to N90,000.

Read also

Texans warily eye impact of Trump's tariffs on their beloved trucks

Similarly, in Damboa, Borno State, maize prices declined from N54,000 to N40,000, while soybeans dropped from N40,000 to N32,000.

Source: Legit.ng