Nigeria’s food inflation on a year-on-year basis was the highest in Abuja, Bayelsa and Imo states recording rates of 15.9 percent, 15.8 percent, 15.5 percent respectively, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) July 2018 inflation report released today.
According to agricultural players in the industry, the added cost of logistics, storage, and losses were the reasons for the states recording the highest food inflation
Emmanuel Ijewere, vice president , Nigerian AgriBusiness Group (NABG) said, “These states with the highest food inflation are those places where majorly of the food that they consume come from outside those states. The cost of transportation, logistics, storage and bringing them on bad roads as well as the cost of fuel has impacted negatively on the food inflationary pressure not to mention the losses that these states has suffered between the place of departure and the arrival states mentioned.”
Plateau state, Bauchi state and Kano state recorded the slowest rise in food prices which was 9.4 percent, 10.4 percent and 10.5 percent respectively
“Kano state produces one of the highest quantity of foods, Bauchi state has a lot of good production areas in terms of fertile land, and so does Plateau state. And they are bounded by states such as Gombe and others that produce more food,” Ijewere explianed
Kano state which is located in the northern part of the country are the main producers of rice, cotton, garlic, groundnut, cowpea, sesame seed, pepper, tomato, sorghum, wheat, hide and skin and hibiscus plant.
Plateau state is located in the middle belt and they are the main producers of Acha (a grain known as “hungry rice”) millet ,yams, sorghum, corn (maize), potatoes, cowpeas, rice, fruits, and vegetables
Bauchi is located in the northeast region of the country and they are the main producers of garlic, ginger, gum Arabic, hibiscus, groundnut , soyabeans, hide and skin, sesame, pepper, tomato and sorghum
On month on month basis however, July 2018 food inflation was highest in Kwara state with 4.6 percent, Kaduna state had 4.0 percent and Imo state had 3.4, while Ogun which had 0.1 percent and Osun which had 0.4 percent recorded the slowest rise, Kogi recorded food price deflation or negative inflation (general decrease in the general price level of goods and services or a negative inflation rate) in July 2018.
BUNMI BAILEY
