Opportunities that exist
in tomato farming
Processed tomatoes serve as an alternative
method of tomato preservation. This
ensures tomato products are available
for consumption all year round.
Asides providing the country with an
additional source of revenue through
the exportation of processed tomato and
reducing importation costs, setting up
tomato processing factories will stimulate
employment in the country, while
indirectly increasing the standard of living
in the nation.
Specifically, the opportunities that exist in
the tomato farming/processing sub-sector
are enormous. The federal government of
Nigeria introduced the tomato policy in
May 2017 focused on boosting tomato
production, improving the entire tomato
value chain, reducing the millions of dollars
spent on the importation of over 150,000
metric tons of tomato annually through
encouraging local agro-allied businesses
growing to increase fresh tomato fruits
required for consumption and processing.
The policy also seeks to impose a ban
on the importation of processed tomato
paste to promote local production of
tomato paste in the country. A 2015
Sciencedomain Research report revealed
that only about 20% of tomato processed
products consumed in the country were
locally produced as the remaining 80%
were imported into the country.
With the government’s impending ban
of the imports of tomato paste and
an established market for the product,
there’s expected to be a huge supply gap
that discerning entrepreneurs can fill to
meet the increasing demand for tomato
paste in Nigeria on the one hand, and
also expanding into the West African sub-
region on the other hand. The government
is also encouraged to prioritize the 100%
implementation of its tomato policy
to signal some level of seriousness to
existing and prospective domestic players.
Secondly, the porous state of the country’s
borders has continued to raise concerns
about the feasibility of the government’s
tomato policy as smuggling and illegal
entry of foreign nationals into the country
have continue to thrive unabated.
Fortunately, there are some key players
who have observed the huge and lucrative
gaps in Nigeria’s tomato market and are
taking steps to remedy them.
Tomato Jos
Mira Mehta and her co-founder, Shane
Kiernan, founded Tomato Jos in 2014.
Tomato Jos is an agricultural production
company with the aim of making
tomato paste production a sustainable,
profitable business for Nigerian farmers.
The company generates revenue by
manufacturing, packaging, branding and
selling tomato paste directly to major
supermarkets as well as through regional
distributors.
About 55% of the tomatoes used
for the paste production are gotten
from farmlands directly operated by
the company, the remaining 45% are
purchased from small farmers (c.100,000
in North Central Nigeria). It is transforming
highly perishable raw tomatoes into long-
lasting, high value tomato paste.
Dangote Farm Industries Ltd.
Launched in Kano state in March 2016
and later shutdown towards the end of
2017 due to lack of raw materials and
inability of the company to agree pricing
with farmers, the US$20 million Dangote
tomato processing facility was re-opened
in March 2019 with a production capacity
of 1,200 metric tonnes of tomato paste
daily.
With the major challenge of the company
being insufficient tomatoes for daily
production, the company has concluded
plans to develop its own tomato farm
with a special strain that could increase
yield to 60 tonnes per hectare compared
to 10 tonnes per hectare recorded by
most farmers presently. The company
also reached an agreement with local
farmers to buy their products at local
markets prices in a bid to meet up with
enough supply for daily production. With
this strategy, producing tomatoes can be
made a multi-billion-dollar business that
meets both domestic and international
demand in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
Tomato Farming in Nigeria
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