Garri (White) recorded the largest mean price increase of any item in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems' Lagos market survey for the week of 24 July 2026, rising 4.2% from ₦1,267 to ₦1,320 for a paint measure.
This Week's Mean Price
The mean was calculated across ten Lagos markets. The cheapest paint was recorded at ₦1,000 in Oyingbo Market, while the priciest reached ₦2,000 in Ajah Market, one of the widest spreads recorded in this week's survey.
What's Driving The Move
Garri is processed from cassava grown outside Lagos and hauled into the city by road, which places it squarely in the path of the fuel price shock that ran through the survey window. Dangote Refinery suspended naira petrol sales in mid-July and returned on 22 July at a gantry price of ₦1,215 per litre, an increase of ₦140 or 13.02% from ₦1,075, as Punch reported. Depot prices in Lagos rose alongside it, with Vanguard reporting increases of as much as ₦87 per litre at individual Lagos depots on 22 July and average pump prices reaching around ₦1,350 from ₦1,260. Legit.ng and Daily Trust reported transport fares climbing between 20% and 40% on many routes. Haulage costs move into garri prices faster than into most items in this survey, and garri rose across all three varieties tracked this week.
The national picture was already pointing upward before the fuel increase landed. The NBS Consumer Price Index for June 2026, released in mid-July and covered by Vanguard, Premium Times and Leadership, showed food inflation climbing to 3.75% month-on-month from 2.98% in May, even as headline inflation eased slightly to 15.91%. Vanguard's account listed the items behind the food index increase, and garri was among them. The Central Bank made the same point when it held the Monetary Policy Rate at 26.5% on 21 July, with Governor Olayemi Cardoso attributing rising food inflation to supply constraints while core inflation moderated on exchange rate stability.
The monthly pattern is easy to misread without the annual context. NBS Selected Food Price Watch data for April 2026, reported by Nairametrics and This Day in June, showed white garri sold loose at ₦808.96 per kilogram, down 39.86% from ₦1,345.10 a year earlier, but up 0.93% on March 2026. Garri is therefore far cheaper than it was in 2025 while still ticking upward month to month, and it is that short-term direction the June CPI picked up and this week's Lagos survey extends.