The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems' weekly market survey for Lagos, covering the week of 24 July 2026 and compared with 17 July 2026, shows a food basket splitting along a clear line. Almost everything that arrives in Nigeria by ship got cheaper. Almost everything grown and moved inside the country got more expensive.
What Lagos Pays Now
Rice remains the largest single category tracked, and it leaned lower across almost every format this week. A derica of Imported Rice (Long Grain) had a mean price of ₦1,025 across eight markets, cheapest at ₦900 in Mushin Market and priciest at ₦1,300 in Ajah Market. The paint size of the same rice averaged ₦5,081, the 25kg bag averaged ₦28,562, and the 50kg bag averaged ₦56,938, all lower than the previous week. Imported Rice (Short Grain) also eased, with a derica averaging ₦950, a paint averaging ₦4,700, a 25kg bag averaging ₦26,722, and a 50kg bag averaging ₦53,000. Nigerian Manufactured Rice held broadly flat by comparison, with the derica and paint sizes unchanged at ₦964 and ₦4,843, the 25kg bag up marginally to ₦26,812, and the 50kg bag up slightly to ₦53,312.
Beans showed a split. A derica of Beans (Drum) rose to a mean of ₦989 across nine markets, cheapest at ₦800 in Agege Market and priciest at ₦1,200 in Ile-Epo Market, while a derica of Beans (Oloyin) fell to ₦1,056, cheapest at ₦900 in Ile-Epo Market and priciest at ₦1,300 in Ajah Market. The paint sizes of both varieties eased slightly, with Beans (Drum) averaging ₦4,256 and Beans (Oloyin) averaging ₦4,780.
Garri moved higher across all three varieties tracked. A paint of Garri (White) averaged ₦1,320 across ten markets, cheapest at ₦1,000 in Oyingbo Market and priciest at ₦2,000 in Ajah Market. Garri (Ijebu) averaged ₦1,275 across four markets, and Garri (Yellow) averaged ₦1,511 across nine markets.
Medium Sized Eggs averaged ₦5,560 per crate across ten markets, cheapest at ₦4,000 in Ile-Epo Market and priciest at ₦6,500 in Agbalata Market. Medium Sized Yam recorded the week's most dramatic move, with a mean of ₦3,055 per tuber across ten markets, cheapest at ₦2,150 in Ile-Epo Market and priciest at ₦3,500 in Mile 12 Market.
The Week's Biggest Increases
Garri (White) posted the largest mean increase of the week, rising 4.2% from ₦1,267 to ₦1,320 across ten markets. Beans (Drum) in the derica size followed with a 2.3% rise from ₦967 to ₦989 across nine markets. Garri (Ijebu) rounded out the list of moves of 1% or more, up 1.2% from ₦1,260 to ₦1,275 across four markets.
The Week's Biggest Decreases
Medium Sized Yam led all declines by a wide margin, falling 9.6% from ₦3,380 to ₦3,055 across ten markets. Imported Rice (Long Grain) recorded declines across every format tracked, down 3.8% in the 25kg bag from ₦29,688 to ₦28,562, down 3.5% in the derica from ₦1,062 to ₦1,025, and down 3.2% in the 50kg bag from ₦58,812 to ₦56,938. Medium Sized Eggs fell 3.1% from ₦5,740 to ₦5,560. Imported Rice (Short Grain) in the derica size dropped 2.8% from ₦978 to ₦950, and Beans (Oloyin) in the derica size fell 2.1% from ₦1,078 to ₦1,056. Smaller declines of 1% or more were recorded in Beans (Drum) paint, down 1.5% to ₦4,256, Imported Rice (Long Grain) paint, down 1.5% to ₦5,081, and Imported Rice (Short Grain) paint, down 1.1% to ₦4,700.
The Import Line
The clearest signal in this week's survey is not any single price. It is the contrast between two kinds of rice sitting in the same markets.
Every format of imported rice fell. Nigerian Manufactured Rice did not, holding flat in the derica and paint sizes and edging up in both bag sizes. Same commodity, same ten markets, same seven days, moving in opposite directions depending on whether it crossed a border to get there.
Three things happened on the import side in the weeks before this survey. Nigeria cut its import duty on bulk rice above 5kg from 70% to 47.5%, and on broken rice from 70% to 30%, with effect from 1 July 2026, a change Milling Middle East and Africa reported from fiscal policy documents seen by Platts. The naira then strengthened on every trading day of the comparison window, moving from ₦1,380.10 per dollar on 20 July to ₦1,362.09 by 24 July at the official market, with external reserves climbing above $52 billion. And the global backdrop was already loose, with Platts assessments reported in November 2025 describing a structural surplus in the West African rice corridor as India and Thailand increased shipments after record harvests.
A lower duty, a stronger naira and a well supplied corridor all push the same direction, and the mean for every imported rice format moved that way.
The Domestic Line
Locally produced staples faced the opposite set of pressures. The Central Bank of Nigeria's Monetary Policy Committee, meeting on 20 and 21 July, held the policy rate at 26.5% and set out why the headline number is misleading for food buyers. Headline inflation eased to 15.91% in June only because the non-food component fell. Food inflation rose to 17.52% year-on-year from 16.96% in May, which the committee attributed to supply constraints, while core inflation moderated on exchange rate stability. Vanguard's coverage of the June CPI listed garri and cowpeas among the items driving the food index higher.
Transport costs are the mechanism that separates the two lines, and they moved sharply at the close of this survey week. Dangote Refinery resumed naira sales of petrol on 22 July at a gantry price of ₦1,215 per litre, which Vanguard reported as an increase of about 13% linked to the rally in global crude, and filling stations in Lagos and Ogun moved to around ₦1,300 per litre from about ₦1,220 earlier in the week. Imported rice arrives at Lagos ports. Garri, beans and yam travel by road from farms and markets across the country, so fuel sits inside their price in a way it does not for a bag landed at Apapa. That increase came too late in the week to explain these numbers, but it is the factor to watch in the next two surveys.
What The Macro Frame Does Not Explain
Two of this week's moves resist it.
The yam decline runs against everything reported this year. Vanguard reported in April 2026 that a trader at Oyingbo Market expected prices to rise further, possibly close to double, by August, and Premium Times reported in early July that yam prices in Enugu had climbed steeply. A 9.6% fall is a departure from that trend, not a continuation of it. Seasonality is the likely explanation, since Nigeria's new yam harvest reaches markets from around August, but nothing so far confirms that early volumes have arrived in Lagos.
The egg decline is similarly unexplained. Nairametrics and Leadership both reported in March 2026 that farm gate prices had risen to around ₦5,500 per crate on a day-old chick shortage, and The Guardian reported continued pressure in May. A 3.1% weekly fall does not fit that picture, and no specific driver has been identified.
For live, continuously updated prices across all markets in this survey, visit https://foodprices.ng/real-time-prices.