A basket of tomatoes now sells for ₦14,000 in Bauchi, down from ₦18,000, a 22.2% decrease, after a bumper wet-season harvest increased supply, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) found in a market check on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, Peoples Gazette reported.
The survey covered Muda Lawal and Yelwan Tudu markets. NAN said prices overall had fallen by about 30%, but did not say which items that figure covers.
Pepper Down as Much as 75%
A bag of pepper now sells for between ₦30,000 and ₦45,000, down from ₦120,000 over the previous three months, Daily Nigerian reported from the same NAN survey. That is a decrease of between 62.5% and 75%.
Not every vegetable is cheaper. A bag of okra rose from ₦6,000 to ₦7,500, a 25% increase, and a bunch of spinach rose from ₦1,500 to ₦3,500, a 133.3% increase, according to Peoples Gazette.
Traders Expect Further Falls
Musa Yakubu, a tomato dealer, said the drop came from a sharp increase in supply. "We are getting fresh supplies from the farms, and prices are going down daily," he said, Daily Nigerian reported. "We envisage the trend will last till the end of the harvest."
Grocer Bala Audu said customers were buying tomatoes in large quantities to preserve them for household use. Mishel Reuben, a customer, said her spending had halved: "Presently, I spent N1,500 to buy tomatoes and vegetables as against N3,000 in the past," she said, according to Peoples Gazette.
A Forecast Borne Out
The Bauchi figures match an earlier forecast from growers. In June 2026, the Tomatoes and Orchard Producers Association of Nigeria (TOOPAN) said prices would fall from October as harvests arrived. "We will be looking at October 2026; prices will crash by that time," TOOPAN president Oyeleke Bola said, Food Business Africa reported. He said harvests would come from Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Gombe in the north, and from Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and the Badagry and Epe areas of Lagos in the south-west.
Nigeria produces between 1.8 million and 2.3 million metric tonnes of tomatoes a year, second in Africa after Egypt, according to the same report.
National data points the same way. Tomatoes were among the food items whose average prices fell in September 2026, when the food index declined 1.55% from August, Vanguard reported from National Bureau of Statistics figures.
FoodPrices Nigeria tracks tomato and pepper (rodo) prices across Lagos markets, which receive much of their supply from northern states such as Bauchi. Its market captures will show whether the northern harvest glut reaches Lagos shoppers.
Editor Notes (do not publish): NAN's headline says prices fell 30%, but its own tomato figures show a 22.2% drop (₦18,000 to ₦14,000). I used the calculated figure in the title and meta and reported the 30% as NAN's unspecified overall claim. The customer quote uses "N1,500" exactly as the source prints it; the guide's ₦ rule applies to Claude's own text, so I left the quote untouched. If you would rather convert it, paraphrase instead. Bauchi basket prices are not comparable with Lagos basket sizes. Quotes came through a page summary tool, so check them word for word.