My entry to #Marketfriday by @dswigle. I went to a local market at Awolowo Way Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria. I ended up buying just the quantity of pepper for the weekend instead of for the entire week.
Pepper is a very important cooking ingredient for a typical Nigerian. There is absolutely nothing we as a Nigerians cook without the use of pepper. Ranging from stew, soup, beans, noodles, including frying of eggs. We tend to enjoy food being spicy especially the south west people of the country.
Basically in the local market pepper is being sold in terms of quantity not a measure of size. In the local market there are two types of pepper being sold. the quality ones and the semi spoilt ones called locally as (esa). The price of pepper has increased by about 55% since January 2022. This is a very rapid increment within a space of 11 months. The very quantity I do buy for NGN250 is now NGN400, that is from $0.57 to $0.91. If just the ingredient for cooking increases that much how much more is the main food item itself.
It is very shocking that things we produce locally can have a high increment in price within a space of this year alone even despite the high demand for it everywhere within the country especially in our dear SouthWest
