October was the month peppers came back to earth in Lagos. FoodPrices Nigeria data drawn from the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems market survey shows the October average price of Pepper (Rodo) at ₦1,924 per kg, down from ₦2,638 in September, a 27.06% fall. Across the 27 product lines tracked, 19 moved by 1% or more between the September and October averages. Fifteen of those moves were declines. Every figure below is a mean across Lagos markets, averaged over the weeks of each month.
Peppers Fall a Fifth or More
All three peppers fell by at least a fifth in a month. Tatashe averaged ₦2,038 per kg in October against ₦2,671 in September, down 23.72%. Shombo averaged ₦1,999 against ₦2,500, down 20.05%. The slide continued to the end of the month: in the fourth week of October, rodo stood at ₦1,820, tatashe at ₦1,910 and shombo at ₦1,880.
Measured from the mid-year peak, the fall is steeper still. Rodo averaged ₦4,218 per kg in June, so October's average is 54.39% lower. Tatashe and shombo peaked in July at ₦3,961 and ₦3,759, and have since fallen 48.55% and 46.82%. Rodo's fourth-week price of ₦1,820 is now only 5.14% above its January average of ₦1,731.
Tomatoes Follow, Onions Defy
Tomatoes averaged ₦1,738 per kg in October, down 11.13% from ₦1,955 in September. Onions were the exception in the vegetable group, averaging ₦1,164 per kg against ₦1,058, a 10.02% rise and the highest monthly onion average of 2026.
For a household buying 1kg each of tomatoes, rodo and onions as the base of a pot of stew, the October average cost was ₦4,826, against ₦5,651 in September. That is ₦825 less, a 14.60% saving, even after the rise in onions.
The Cheapest Market Is Catching Up
Agbalata Market, the cheapest place in Lagos for peppers and tomatoes through September, has moved toward the rest of the city. Its rodo price rose from ₦1,200 per kg in the last week of September to ₦1,900 in the fourth week of October, and its tomato price rose from ₦800 to ₦1,200. In the fourth week, the cheapest rodo in Lagos was ₦1,000 at Ile-Epo Market and the dearest ₦2,200 at Oyingbo Market.
The Rest of the Basket
Medium yam averaged ₦2,358 a tuber in October, down 6.17% from September. Rice eased on most lines, led by the imported long-grain derica, down 4.94% to ₦878. Garri (Yellow) fell 2.86% to ₦1,367 a paint, and a crate of Medium Sized Eggs averaged ₦5,468, down 1.17%, though it climbed through the month. Beans was the only other group to rise: Beans (Oloyin) by the derica averaged ₦994, up 2.58%, after Ajah Market raised its derica price from ₦1,000 to ₦1,400 in the third week of the month.
What Other Surveys Say
The News Agency of Nigeria reported on 26 October that pepper had become cheaper in Lagos, with a trader at Abule-Nla Junction in Costain selling a small basket for ₦20,000 against ₦30,000 to ₦40,000 in September. That agrees with the October pepper figures. NAN found tomatoes dearer at Costain, with a paint rising to ₦7,000 from ₦6,000, which differs from the fall in the Lagos kg average. BrandSpur carried the same findings. The Nairametrics Food Price Watch had already recorded a big bag of pepper down 20% to ₦80,000 in September.
Live prices: foodprices.ng/real-time-prices