Nigeria: Tomato paste could prove a tasty investment
Despite the fact that Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest tomato grower, local production doesn’t currently meet demand. The deficit is made up of imports, especially of tomato paste. Due to increasing urbanisation, consumers are also showing a preference for convenience foods such as tomato paste.
Nigeria imported tomato paste worth US$151m in 2013, with about 75% of product coming from China.
But a recent move by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barring importers of tomato paste from accessing foreign exchange at the Nigerian foreign exchange markets could incentivise local production.
Nigeria’s Dangote Group recently invested in a tomato paste production plant in Kano State that sources tomatoes from nearby farmers. However, according to Ecobank, the Dangote factory has already encountered challenges due to the outbreak of Tuta absoluta, a tomato pest.
Another company trying its hand at the industry is Tomato Jos, a for-profit social enterprise aiming to locally manufacture a Nigerian tomato paste brand. “Our mission is to provide locally-produced, high-quality value-add food products to Nigerian consumers in a way that is profitable and sustainable… We operate across the full tomato value chain (farming, logistics, and processing) and source our raw materials from smallholder farmers,” Tomato Jos co-founder Mira Mehta, told How we made it in Africa in an interview earlier this year.
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