NIGERIAN may have to brace themselves for a surge in the price of a 50kg bag of locally parboiled rice to as high as N50,000 before December on the back of the floods in many states, traders and distributors of the commodity have said.
Flood incidents in Africa’s biggest economy that have destroyed 70,566 hectares of farmland, damaged 45,249 houses and displaced over 1.4 million Nigerians, with about 600 persons reported dead, 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 mostly consumed by households, has been affected the most by the impact of the flood. The situation 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 piling more pressure on rice millers that are already contending with rising production costs amid a nearly three-fold 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 surging daily, we might even buy it at N50,000 before December,” said Iyabo Adekunle, a rice trader at Bodija Market in Ibadan.
