Beans (Drum) at 1 Derica now averages ₦967 across nine Lagos markets, down from ₦1,000 a week earlier. The ₦33 decline works out at 3.3%, the second largest fall of the 21 product-and-unit lines in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems market survey for the week to 14 August 2026.
The Measure That Matters Most to Households
The Derica is the unit that governs daily purchasing for households that cannot commit cash to a paint or a bag. A household buying one Derica a day now spends ₦29,010 a month at the market mean, against ₦30,000 last week, a saving of ₦990. The gap between markets is larger than the weekly move. Drum beans sell for ₦900 at Mushin Market and ₦1,100 at Mile 12 Market, a 22.2% premium at Mile 12. Thirty Dericas bought at Mushin cost ₦27,000 against ₦33,000 at Mile 12, a difference of ₦6,000 a month.
The Whole Bean Category Is Softening
Drum beans did not fall alone. Beans (Oloyin) at 1 Derica fell 3.0% to ₦1,078, Oloyin at 1 Paint fell 2.6% to ₦4,950 and Drum at 1 Paint fell 1.4% to ₦4,450. Every bean line tracked in the survey moved lower.
Where External Reporting Agrees
Nairametrics, citing the National Bureau of Statistics Selected Food Price Watch, reported that brown beans fell 44.89% year-on-year in April 2026 to ₦1,338.93 per kilogram from ₦2,429.39 a year earlier. Legit.ng reported the same NBS release and agreed on the annual direction, noting that beans, tomatoes and onions all recorded year-on-year declines while showing marginal month-on-month increases. BusinessDay documented the supply mechanism behind bean price falls, reporting a 37% decline in bean prices after a bumper harvest, with a Kaduna farmer describing yields that tripled on the same farmland. Nairametrics also found beans among the items unchanged in its June 2026 Lagos survey, which it read as traders and consumers finding equilibrium between supply and demand. All four readings agree that the medium-term direction for beans has been downward, which is consistent with this week's Lagos movement.
What Buyers Should Take From This
The ₦33 weekly saving on a Derica is real but small next to the ₦200 gap between the cheapest and dearest market. For households buying beans daily, choosing the market matters roughly six times more than timing the week. The nine-market coverage on this line is solid, though slightly below the 10-market coverage on the paint measures