Nigeria’s worsening food inflation is hitting farmers from both sides, with rising production costs eroding their margins while shrinking consumer purchasing power leaves large volumes of food unsold.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that food inflation climbed to 20.31 per cent in July, its highest level in six months, even as headline inflation eased to 15.43 per cent.
The gap is becoming increasingly evident in the poultry sector, where thousands of crates of eggs are reportedly being wasted weekly because consumers can no longer afford to buy at profitable prices.
Chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, Lagos State Chapter, Mojeed Iyiola, said farmers were being forced to cut egg prices to dispose of their perishable produce, leaving many to operate at a loss.
“Thousands of crates of eggs are being buried every week,” Iyiola said, explaining that farmers could not afford to stop production because birds still had to be fed to maintain egg production.
He said the situation was particularly difficult for farmers who had borrowed from banks, as losses from unsold and spoiled eggs could undermine their ability to repay loans.
The Chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Agricultural and Allied Group, Tunde Banjoko, attributed the rising pressure on farmers to escalating energy and fuel costs, expensive fertiliser, transportation, insecurity, flooding and high financing costs.
Banjoko said the rising cost of farm operations was limiting farmers’ ability to meet production targets, potentially worsening food supply and pushing prices higher.
Food inflation rose steadily from 12.12 per cent in February to 14.31 per cent in March, 16.06 per cent in April, 16.96 per cent in May, 17.52 per cent in June and 20.31 per cent in July.
By contrast, headline inflation remained relatively stable, moving from 15.06 per cent in February to 15.43 per cent in July.
The July figures also showed renewed monthly pressure, with food inflation accelerating to 5.56 per cent from 3.75 per cent in June.
Banjoko and Iyiola warned that without interventions to reduce energy and transportation costs, improve fertiliser availability, ease access to finance and tackle insecurity and other production constraints, farmers could continue to suffer losses even as Nigerian households face increasingly unaffordable food.
