Nigerians may have to brace themselves for a surge in the price of a 50kg bag of locally parboiled rice as its price may skyrocket to N50,000 before December due to the damages caused by floods in many states, traders and distributors of the commodity have said.
Flood incidents in Africa’s biggest economy that have destroyed over 70,566 hectares of farmland, damaged over 45,249 houses and displaced over 1.4 million Nigerians, with about 600 people reported to be dead already, according to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, have sent prices of food items on an upward trajectory, especially in affected communities.
Rice, a key staple most consumed food by households in Nigeria has been affected the most by the impact of the floods. The situation has caused the price of paddy to jump from N200,000 to N300,000 per tonne in three weeks owing to the flood.
The recent jump in paddy prices is putting more pressure on rice millers that are already contending with rising production costs amid a nearly 3X increase in diesel cost.
In September, the country’s inflation hit a 17-year high at 20.7 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
“With the rate the prices of rice are increasing daily, we might even buy it at N50,000 before December,” said Ronke Adewale, a rice trader at Daleko Market in Mushin.