Prices of Tomatoes have skyrocketed in the Market, as Nigerians are lamenting over the present situation.

Many had thought that hike in the prices of Tomatoes and Peppers for making Soups and Stews was as a result of the just concluded Sallah Festival, but this isn’t the situation, as the the prices in this commodity has further skyrocketed.

Ile Epo Market in Oke Odo Local Council Development Area in Alimosho Local Government play host to the Market where edibles are sold in large quantities.

As early as 4:30am on a daily basis, the Market has become a beehive of activities, as people stroll into the Market to purchase food items which is at this time, early in the morning is cheaper.

Sadly, this isn’t the present situation as there is scarcity in Tomatoes and Peppers, with the available ones been sold on the high side.

This has prompted housewives to ditched tomatoes for their stews and other sauces due to the price.

Three small piece of Tomatoes is been sold for N200 with Three Big ones sold for N500.

This has further made most housewives to opt for Tin Tomatoes.

In a chat with some Women in the Market, they said they are disheartened with the situation of things, saying that they now resort to the usage of dried pepper with Tin Tomatoes to make stew.

The Home of Affordable Edible Foods in Lagos, Mile 12 Markets, where people go to purchase the edibles is also the same situation as people who were interview said they have ditched Tomatoes for Tin Tomatoes.

In Abuja, the nation’s Capital, it is also the same situation.

Some housewives said they have resorted to using garden egg plants and carrots in their stews.
They said garden egg, called ganyen gauta in Hausa, igba in Yoruba and anyara in Igbo, could blend very well with rice in the same manner as tomatoes.

Others said they were exploring pumpkin, pawpaw or traditional soups like white soup and palm fruit soup popularly called banga soup in place of tomatoes stew.

Lamidi Jummai, a housewife and mother of three said that this present situation has made her resort to using Pumpkin, Pawpaw and traditional soup as stew.

“We like Rice in my house and we need to use stew, with the scarcity and high cost of tomatoes, her family was exploring garden egg stew.

“since tomatoes became very expensive, we decided to use garden egg for stew and it is as sweet as tomato stew.

“The only major difference bewteen garden egg stew and tomatoes stew is the colour.

“We also use pumpkin stew with rice sometimes and although it has its unique taste, it blends well with rice.”

According to findings made by News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, with some housewives over the present situation,

“I went to the market yesterday to get some tomatoes for stew and a sizeable bushel, which costs between N2000 and N2500 was being sold for as much as N6500.

“I did not bother to haggle the price because it was way beyond my budget,”she said.

Chinedu, an entrepreneur, told NAN that he enjoyed taking rice with peppersoup or white soup.

“The prices of all food stuff have gone up but that of tomatoes is outrageous probably because it is tomatoes off-season.

“Besides being expensive, it is very scarce and as a result we decided to explore other recipes,”he said.

Umar Adamu, a tomatoes retailer in Nyanya market in the FCT, said he has stopped retailing tomatoes for some days due to low patronage.

He said customers were not “patronising him because of the high cost.”

Rukkaya Umar, Chief Executive Officer, Abraks Farm Produce Nigeria Limited said the major reason for scarcity of tomatoes was high cost of fertiliser.

According to her, many tomato farmers do not grow it because they cannot afford fertiliser, adding that fertiliser was critical to its growth.

Umar also said reliance on seasonal farming was one of the reasons for the scarcity, adding that it was tomatoes off-season.

“Most farmers in Nigeria still do seasonal farming and that is contributing greatly to scarcity of farm produce particularly in their off-seasons,”she said.

It also reported that a sizeable basket of tomatoes which hitherto sold for about N10,000 now sells for about N35,000 while big baskets cost more.