Pepper (Rodo) traded at a mean ₦3,660 per kilogramme across all ten Lagos markets in the week to 14 August 2026, down from ₦3,870 a week earlier, a fall of 5.4%. It remains the dearest vegetable per kilogramme in the Lagos basket. The survey source is the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture and Food Systems, and all prices are means across markets.
The Steepest Retreat in the Basket
Rodo has given back more of its gains than any other vegetable tracked. The Lagos mean peaked at ₦4,710 in the week of 26 June and has fallen through ₦4,235, ₦3,980 and ₦3,870 to ₦3,660, a decline of 22.3% from the peak.
The climb before it was equally steep. Rodo rose from ₦3,044 on 1 May to ₦4,710 by late June, a gain of 54.7% in eight weeks as the dry season crop ran out. What remains is a price 20.2% above the start of May, so the retreat has cut the increase without erasing it. The weekly series has a four week gap between 26 June and 24 July, so the first part of the descent is not continuously recorded.
Falling With Its Category
Rodo did not move alone. Tatashe fell 5.6% and Shombo fell 4.9% in the same week, and all three peaked within two weeks of each other in the second half of June. When an entire pepper category rises and falls together, the driver is the harvest calendar rather than conditions at any one market.
The trade said as much in advance. TheWhistler reported the Tomatoes Growers and Processors Association of Nigeria forecasting considerable declines from August once wet season harvesting began, and Vanguard carried the same projection from the association's Kaduna State chairman, who tied the May to June scarcity to unpredictable rainfall and extreme heat in producing states including Kaduna and Kano. Both agree on the seasonal explanation now visible in the Lagos means.
What the National Data Says
Leadership reported that the National Bureau of Statistics named fresh pepper among the items pushing July 2026 food inflation to 20.31% year on year, up from 17.52% in June. TalkTalk Nigeria reported that food inflation has now accelerated for six consecutive months even as headline inflation eased. The Lagos series shows rodo already falling through that period and continuing to fall since.
Agbalata Against Ajah
Agbalata Market records a mean ₦2,200 per kilogramme while Ajah Market records ₦5,000, a premium of 127.3%. A household using two kilogrammes a week spends ₦4,400 at Agbalata against ₦10,000 at Ajah, a difference of about ₦22,400 across a month on one ingredient.
FoodPrices Nigeria tracks rodo pepper across all ten Lagos markets weekly. Live prices: foodprices.ng/real-time-prices/?brand_name=Pepper+%28Rodo%29