By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

In response to skyrocketing tomato prices, Nigerians have turned to stew alternative recipes which include the use of more affordable vegetables.

The National Bureau of Statistics released in April 2024, reported that the country’s headline inflation rate increased to 33.69 per cent, the highest in the last five years.

Sharing an alternative recipe to tomato stew, Stephanie Vani, told Saturday PUNCH that she learned the recipe of using carrot stew from a video on TikTok and has tried it out.

“I also saw the video of the cucumber stew, and I’m planning on trying that out too,” she added.

An Instagram user with the handle, Verere, also shared her experience using cabbage stew saying, “I did cabbage stew this week, and it was a bang. Next week, cucumber; upper week, garden egg. New recipes till tomatoes will come and beg us.”

Another Instagram user, Aramide’s Kitchen, noted, “Better update. As tomatoes are now expensive, if I eat this cucumber stew today, I will eat Banga stew tomorrow.”

Lamenting the rising cost of alternative ingredients, a provision seller at EFAB market in Abuja commented, “We have just five pieces of carrot for N500, and it’s the tiniest of it all. Even the carrot stew is very expensive, and if you want to do the carrot stew, you have to do other veggies as well. And the tiniest of bell pepper is N500, for what used to be sold for N100. So how many can you use to do your carrot stew?

“What people use now is an alternative to stew. There is no specific stew. Just use something to eat something. Pepper soup spices are trending. Nothing like stew again; we are now doing what we can afford.”

Also speaking with our correspondent, a tomato seller who gave his name as Abu, highlighted, “Basket of tomatoes is N18,000 while last two months, it was N10,000. A small plate of tomatoes now is N1,500. The biggest basket is over N100,000 while the medium size of cucumber is from N300.”

An economist, Prof Sheriffdeen Tella, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, said, “Inflation is not just about a particular product, it is a general price increase. We know that inflation in Nigeria has been on for a long time.

“The issue of tomatoes being scarce has to do with an attack from insects, but in the short run, we cannot overcome it. In the long run, we will be able to overcome it. We know that there are tomato purée and all those things in the market.

“Generally, we have been spending a lot of money on food, and part of the inflation has to do with the importation of food, so tomato is going to be part of those food items. And I think people have to look for alternatives, and they are getting alternatives. It’s better to face that alternative while the issue of pesticide is being tackled by the government.”

Another economist, Leo Ukpong, told our correspondent that insecurity and transportation challenges have been responsible for the hike in tomato prices.

“The major tomatoes are from the middle belt to Plateau, Jos, and Taraba. One of the biggest problems in that area is insecurity. So farmers are not able to farm the way they used to farm. And even when they farm, moving them is a problem because of insecurity.

“I have been reading recently about the new hybrid tomatoes that people have been planting. Hybrids came because they wanted to resist the attack of insects instead of using insecticides.

“The problem with those hybrid tomatoes is you don’t have the seeds to replant, and you have to buy the seeds. They look nice in most supermarkets, but it’s too expensive.

“So, insecurity and transportation crisis have cut down on the quantity of tomatoes available to the average market person.”

Punch