How insecurity, seasonal changes raise tomato prices

Heightening insecurity in parts of Northern Nigeria has joined with scarcity of produce, which is typical in the planting season, to shoot up the prices of tomatoes and pepper by about 500 percent.

Market watchers say prices of the produce usually spiral to about 300 percent on account of seasonal trends. The current situation has resulted in increased individual and household spending and higher costs for outdoor food providers.

A 50kg basket of tomatoes, which costs about N3,000 in due season in the South West of the country, is currently sold for between N15,000 and N17,000. This worsens the situation, because there is already an annual shortfall of 0.5 million metric tons of tomatoes.

According to figures supplied by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the National Tomato Technical Working Group (NTTWG) recently, total annual demand for tomatoes is 2.3 million metric tons but output estimated at N108 billion, based on the N3,000 price for 50kg of tomatoes, is 1.8 million metric tons.

Farmers, traders and transporters told BusinessDay that many farms in the North East of the country had been abandoned due to the threat posed by Boko Haram insurgents. Many of the farmers are also said to have gone in pursuit of other means of livelihood, while the more resolute have crossed borders into neighbouring states and neighbouring countries, including Niger and Chad republics, as well as Mali, to continue their farming vocation.

Mojisola Onifade of Framoni Farms and Foods Limited says the challenges causing scarcity of these foodstuffs at certain times of the year are due to inability of the stakeholders to manage the processes effectively, using appropriate technologies.

“In Dubai, one can get these foods fresh all year round. Israel, which is also located in a desert, has adequate fresh food supply all year round. In temperate countries, where there is extreme cold, foods that need drying are dried at any time of the year,” she said.

Afioluwa Mogaji, chief executive, X-ray Consulting, explains that tomatoes take about 60 to 90 days between planting and harvest, and that around May to July in the South West and South East, and during the rains, there are more tomatoes still in the fields than in supply to the market, and this leads to increased prices.

“In the Northern part of the country, these tomatoes and pepper are cultivated under irrigation, and by April, the funding provided by the federal, state and local governments for irrigation, mainly for the purchase of diesel to power the facilities are stopped and resume in October,” Mogaji says.

He adds that after irrigation is stopped, many farmers in the North prepare the land for rain-fed agriculture and most of the land used for irrigated cultivation of tomatoes during the dry season is put under rice cultivation.

Mogaji further says that the support provided by the government in terms of dry season farming in the North has helped in keeping the price of the 50kg basket of tomatoes at less than N20,000, because in previous years, this quantity went for as high as N22,000. But he says if the insecurity in the North worsens, the price situation could likewise worsen.

Suggesting a way forward, he says: “The solution is for farmers in the South West and South East to engage more in irrigation and Fadama farming, which is farming in swampy lands, so that prices of crops such as tomatoes would not sky-rocket at certain times of the year, causing hardship. Irrigation and Fadama farming would of course need government support.”

Obiajuru Igborgbor of Novus Agro Commodity Index, a food prices research firm, says: “During the rainy season, the rains aggravate the condition of the roads and trucks transporting food produce from one part of the country to another experience delays in movement or accidents and some of the tomatoes and peppers which are very highly perishable foods are lost, so the quantity that get to their destinations on time are relatively small and this causes price hikes. Also, J5 buses now deliver tomatoes to many markets, instead of trailers, resulting in higher transportation costs.”

Igborgbor adds that during the rains, farmers also have a very tough time preventing spoilage of these tomatoes and peppers, as some farmlands become inaccessible, noting that in 2012, the prices of tomatoes and peppers were relatively stable because excesses were stored during the season and this was released into the market in the off-season.

OLUYINKA ALAWODE