The prices of grains and other staple food items are steadily decreasing in markets across Kaduna State against the skyrocketed prices in 2024.
Checks by correspondents in Kaduna showed that the prices of food items like rice, beans, yams, garri and noodles had been reduced even though not much.
At the Sheikh Abubakar GumiMarket, Kaduna’s central market, a 50kg bag of foreign rice sold for about N125,000-130,000 before was now sold between N120,000 and N123,000.
Also, yams, which were in some weeks in 2024, sold for N7,000 per tuber and N28,000 for a set of five, now sell from N5000 to N6,000 and N2,500 for medium ones by those who sell on bonanza.
A local measure of eight cups of beans, which was initially sold for N3,000 to N3,500, now costs N2,500, while a measure of garri, previously sold for between N1,400 and N1,500, now costs N1,200.
A carton of Indomie noodles previously sold at N7,700 now sells at N7,500.
Some consumers, who spoke to journalists in separate interviews, said they hoped that the prices of food items would continue to crash.
Hafsat Muhammad said she now buys a local measure of rice at N2,100 against its initial price of N2,400, adding that a local measure of corn, which cost N1200 before, now goes for N900.
Similarly, Ummi Shuaibu, a businesswoman, said she bought bags of maize immediately after the harvest to resell after some months, but her plans changed after the prices of food items began to come down.
” A bag of corn that used to be N60,000 is now around N50,000 to N55,000; that is why I must sell it off as soon as possible,“ she said.
