Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The prices of major food commodity declined across the states in Nigeria in the month of June 2019, compared with what was recorded in the month of May, a report released few days ago by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.
In the report, which sampled some selected food items, it was discovered that the price of 1kg worth of tomato decreased by 9.40 percent to N226.07 in the month of June from N249.52 in May.
According to the data analysed by Business Post, prices of the various categories of rice sampled all dropped. For example, price of the medium rice suffered the heaviest drop of 2.80 percent to sell at an average N308/kg in the month of June followed by the local Rice which went down by 2.57 percent from the previous month to sell at an average of N271/kg. Other categories of the grain product, the Ofada rice saw a 1.13 percent drop to sell at N373.5 (per kg) while the agric rice fell by 1.03 percent in June to N318.25/kg.
Another major food commodity that saw a large drop in prices (per kg) was beans. The brown beans dropped by 6.16 percent to N342.62 in the month under review, while the white beans also recorded a price reduction of 5.54 percent to sell for an average of N311 per kg.
Yam, according to the NBS Data, recorded the largest fall in prices of selected food commodities in the sixth month of the year, as the price went down by a whopping 15.68 percent to go for as low as N182 per kg.
The yellow and white garri also saw double-digit decrease as both fell by 13.68 and 10.05 percent respectively to N156 and N145 per kg apiece.
Also, fish saw drop in prices between 0.91 – 3 percent on all the various types of the commodity studied. Frozen Titus fish went down by 0.91 percent to sell at N940/kg. Smoked catfish depreciated by 1.49 percent last month to N1530 per kilo. The price of frozen mackerel reduced by 1.7 percent to N925 per kg.
Bread, one of the major end products of flour, also recorded changes in both categories of the commodity studied (sliced and unsliced 500g). Sliced bread recorded a change of 1.53 percent from the price quoted in May to drop to N292.73 per loaf. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case with the latter (unsliced) as prices went up by 0.88% percent to sell at a quoted N274.49.
Benue state, the food basket of the nation, saw the highest price range of beef (bone in) as price went as high as N1244 in the state, but the average price (per kg) for the animal produce across the nation was N1003, with an almost 2 percent change in price from the previous month. Boneless beef, on the other hand, recorded a higher drop of 2.3 percent to sell at an average price of N1240.
Dairy products like chicken, eggs, and milk were also studied and from the analysis, the price of chicken feet and wings both decreased by 4.69 percent and 3.06 percent to N693 and N905 per kilogram respectively while frozen chicken went up by 3 percent to as high as N1750/kg.
A dozen of egg also went up by 6.6 percent to go for N495 but the medium price of a single piece of the dairy product of N39 saw an 8.20 percent drop, according to the statistical report. The price of evaporated milk likewise dropped by almost 4 percent to go for almost N157 per unit.
Onions, Maize grain, oil, plantain, were also some of the food commodities that recorded various decrease in prices in the month of June 2019.
