Families who switched from tomato to other alternatives may need to return to their favourite fruit as prices have dropped to seven-month low on the commencement of a new harvest season and the July/August rain break.

Tomato prices fell 58 percent from January to August 2024 in a relief for several families hard hit by over 40 percent food inflation in Africa’s most populous nation.

BusinessDay surveyed markets across Lagos and found that a big basket of tomatoes currently sells for N50,000 as against an average of N120,000 in January/February 2024 at Mile 12 Market. In Onitsha, the basket costs between N60,000 and N75,000 at major markets such as Ochanja, and Ose. In Wuse and Dei Dei markets in Abuja, prices hover between N45,000 and N60,000.

A small basket of tomatoes now costs N6,500 in Lagos as against N13,000 in January.

“The new harvest has started,” Sani Danladi, national chairman of the Association of Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, said, while explaining the reason behind the price drop.

“Farmers who planted in the past months are currently harvesting, which explains why the prices of tomatoes are coming down. The rain break too is another reason,” he added.

For pepper, a small basket of Habanero pepper currently sells for an average of N13,000 as against N35,000 at the peak of the price surge in May-June, indicating a 63 percent decline over the period.

Abiodun Olorundero, managing partner at Prasino Farms, also attributed the price drop to the new harvest season of tomatoes in the North along with the present rain break.

“Farmers are harvesting their tomato plants that survived during the rainy seasons as well as those grown with irrigation,” he said. “This, together with the present rain break, is what is responsible for this price drop.”

The sudden drop in prices of tomatoes has elicited different reactions from Nigerians who were forced to explore alternatives due to the high cost of the fruit.

Folake Aturamu, a primary school teacher in Ogun State, said she knows the prices of tomatoes have dropped when the quantity sold to her at Mowe market was more than it usually was.

“I recently bought N2,000 worth of tomatoes and it was a lot. I could cook my pot of stew without adding other things to increase the quantity,” she said.

Aturamu said she is happy with the price drop and hopes it will drop further.

Read also: Surging tomato prices create entrance for alternatives

At the peak of the rainy season, which led to the unprecedented price increases of the vegetable, Nigerians alternated with beets, cucumbers and carrots for their stews.

It also affected the popular jollof rice. An SB Morgan Jollof Rice Index revealed that the average cost of cooking a pot of jollof rice increased by 19.6 percent from N16,955 to N20,274 between March and June 2024.

The drop in tomato and pepper prices comes as relief and a window of hope to Nigerians, many of whom had to do away with the vegetables in their meals to rely on cheap substitutes.

The joy of Olamide Olawale, an account officer at Smile 360 Dental Clinic Lagos, was palpable as she told BusinessDay that she could now confidently use both tomatoes and pepper in preparing noodles.

“Before now, I couldn’t use tomatoes and pepper in cooking my noodles; I had to rely on dry pepper. But now, with this price drop, I can do that,” she said while smiling.

In Africa, Nigeria is the largest grower of tomatoes. Yet, approximately 700,000 tons rot as waste each year through post-harvest losses, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

BusinessDay had earlier reported that the tomato price rally was spurred by seasonality, Tuta absoluta invasion and the high cost of transportation from growing states in the North to other parts of the country.

Added to post-harvest loss is the constant invasion by Tuta absoluta, popularly called Tomato Ebola, that ravages tomato farms every year in the North, resulting in lowering the production of the fruit.

Micheal Jesutofunmi, a content writer in Lagos, said it sounded unbelievable when he first heard of the price drop until he went to the market.

“I thought it was a dream,” he noted. “I had to ask the man selling if he knew what he was doing because the quantity he was giving me for only N500 was more than what I used to get.”

However, while farmers link the decline to the harvest and the rain break, Bismarck Rewane, an economist and chief executive of Financial Derivatives Company, confirming the slash in tomato prices, said in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday that the ongoing hunger protest is responsible.

According to him, the prices of tomatoes and pepper may increase again as business activities return to normalcy in Nigerian markets after the protests.

But Danladi, earlier mentioned, assured that a pause in rainfall, coupled with the new harvest season, is what has driven the price crash experienced across markets.

“Prices of tomatoes and pepper will decline further in the coming months,” Danladi assured. (BusinessDay)

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