+The Real Cost of Cereals
Import Bill of a Balanced Diet
The cost of imported food has been steadily rising in Nigeria, with a 7.8 percentage points increase from 18.5% in January 2023 to 26.29% in January 2024 compared to the previous year.
It’s interesting that these imports consistently comprise Carbohydrates, Protein, and Fats and Oil, pointing to Nigeria’s dependence on foreign countries’ support for its balanced diet.
The fact that a bulk of these food items are imported over consecutive years indicates that local production is insufficient to meet the people’s demand for these items.
With the rising exchange rate, the cost of imported food items might still be on its way up in the nearest future.
The imported food inflation rate has consistently increased over the past year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) CPI data.
This situation places a demand on Nigerian consumers to exercise their thinking and innovation muscles on what local food items can serve as substitutes for imported food items or on how to reduce the consumption of these food items where there are no close locally produced substitutes.
Over the past five years, 12 food classes consistently ranked in the top ten most imported items. This recurrent trend suggests a heavy reliance on imports to meet consumption needs, especially for staple items like cereals and wheat.
The Real Cost of Cereals
On average, each Nigerian household (comprising 5 persons) spent N1.96 million (N1,964,900 or $1,248 at N1,575 per dollar) in five years to purchase the 10 highest valued food imports.