Onion hits N250,000/bag; farmers, traders blame flooding, inflation

For many homes, onion is already an item that is too expensive to afford and an alternative is needed on their menu. This is even as the price of the nutritious vegetable is forecasted to remain high for a long time.

A Daily Trust market survey across three major cities showed that the prices of the spice along with others are on the upward trajectory.

In Kano, it was revealed that a big bag of onion is sold at N250,000 as against last year’s price of N120,000 and the medium bag is now selling at N180,000 as against N80,000 last year.

In Jos, the Plateau State capital, Daily Trust reported similar prices as a bag is now N250,000 while the half bag, is sold at N125,000, and that there are other varieties with prices ranging from N215,000 to N230,000 for the same size bag.

The secretary of Farin Gada Vegetable Market in Jos, Musa Ubale, said the current price of onions (N250,000 a bag) has remained so for some time now, while it was hitherto sold at about N170,000 for the same quantity.

For pepper, he said the big bag goes for between N40,000 and N45,000, while smaller ones are sold for between N30,000 and N35,000.

The leadership of onion farmers in Kano State told our correspondent that the current scarcity and high price of onion may remain beyond this year’s harvest due to several reasons.

However, the president of the National Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Aliyu Isa Maitasamu, told our correspondent in Sokoto that the increase was due to inflation which he said shot the price of seed to increase by 150 per cent – from N50,000 to N150,000 – as well as the high prices of chemicals and fertilisers.

He also attributed the drop in supply to flood disasters experienced in the onion-producing belt and the scarcity of seeds, all contributing to the soaring price of the commodity in the country.

According to him, the flood disasters had affected Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Borno which were known for producing onions.

Musa Ubale, the secretary of Farin Gada Vegetable Market in Jos, also told our correspondent that part of the reason for the rise in the prices of the vegetables, especially pepper, is that people from neighbouring countries like Cameroon and Ghana do come to purchase them in large quantities.

But one of the onion farmers in Kano State, Alhaji Sama’ila Nura, cited another factor responsible for onion scarcity in Kano as the absence of onion supply from Gada in Niger Republic and some other places that used to complement the Nigerian onion production every year.

“Every year onion supplied from Niger Republic and some other places closer to Nigeria played a very vital role in complementing the Nigerian production. Unfortunately, with the military junta in Niger Republic, not a single supply was received from there.

“Moreover, the high cost of agro-inputs in Nigeria also contributed to the low production of onions during the wet season, with only Kano and Jigawa states producing onion during the wet season, coupled with poor storage methodologies,” he stated.

Currently, planting and other activities for dry season onion production for the year 2025 have commenced.

Daily Trust’s correspondent who visited the Kadawa irrigation site and Garun Malam irrigation site reported vast onion plantations for the season, even though farmers are still lamenting the high cost of inputs.

The current prices of onion seed and other inputs are contributing to the high price heat felt in many homes.

A check conducted in the seed’s open market in Kano shows that a cup of onion seed is sold at N30,000 while a measure (mudu) costs about N130,000.

Sources at the market revealed that this is the highest price that onion seed has ever attained in the last decade. A single bed of onion seedlings is now sold at N100,000 to N105,000 as against N8,000 to N10,000 last year.

Another farmer, Ibrahim Abbah, opined that the chances that the price will go down as expected is very slim due to the increase in demand from other countries.

“It will interest you to note that demand for onion from Nigeria has been on the rise recently. Ironically, Nigeria now supplies Ghana, Benin Republic among other African countries. This is what caused the scarcity sooner than expected; because they have moped up all the excess onions we have here,” he said.

An ex-official of the Onion Farmers Association of Nigeria, Malam Mustapha Adam, said there are various factors that have contributed to the current scarcity of onion in the country.

“The demand for onion has increased drastically; some sources were telling us that Nigerian onions are now being exported to countries like China and India. This development has contributed to its scarcity, and the high cost of seed and other agro-inputs have also triggered the price hike.

“Unfortunately, despite the huge revenue generated to states by onion farming, onion farmers have never accessed any form of grant from the federal government. We have never been included in the various federal government’s agricultural intervention programmes,” he said.

With this changing dynamic in the onion and pepper supply chain, Nigerian kitchens will have to brace up for the additional challenge.