‘75% of harvested tomatoes are wasted annually’
The Chief Executive Officer of Erisco Foods Limited, Chief Eric Umeofia, has said every year, over 75 per cent of tomatoes harvested are wasted in the hands of farmers while Nigeria remains the largest importer of tomato paste in the world.
He made the observation when he received the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige; a former senator, Florence Ita Giwa; and other dignitaries who came on a factory tour of Erisco Foods Limited on Friday.
According to correspondence, he said, “It may interest you to know that Nigeria is the biggest importer of tomato paste in the world while over 75 per cent of fresh tomatoes harvested get wasted in the hands of our farmers yearly due to the fact that there is no means of making use of them industrially.”
According to Umeofia, who is a major stakeholder in the tomato paste and food processing sector, unlike China where there is only one favourable planting and harvest season, Nigeria is blessed with two favourable planting and harvest seasons.
He added, “Worst still, both the Indians that form the majority of the people that import fake/substandard tomato paste into Nigeria, and China that produces the fake/ substandard tomato paste does not consume, in their own countries, the same quality of tomato paste they produce and dump on Nigeria. Still they pay little or nothing as import duty.”
He said the directive from President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigerians should produce what they would need and eat had spurred his firm into creating a means of converting fresh and dried tomato fruits into paste.
“Through converting of fresh tomato into paste, Nigeria will be able to save over $1bn (N280bn) being spent annually on the importation of tomato paste. In addition, we will export and earn hundreds of millions of US dollars in 2017 after meeting the tomato need of every Nigerian in December 2016, provided the government stops the dumping of fake/ substandard tomato paste on us.
“We are set to employ over 50,000 youths in two to three years with over five million indirect jobs for farmers and other people in the value chain in our Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto states backward integration projects that are currently ongoing.”
He disclosed that the firm was set to start production from its Katsina project in the first quarter of 2017, adding that this could only be made possible with the support of Nigerians.
In his address, the labour minister, who was represented by the General Manager, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, Mrs. Olufunke Aleshinloye, commended Erisco for the innovation of converting dried and fresh tomato fruits into paste, adding that it was a laudable accomplishment.
He said, “The Nigerian economy needs this kind of innovation and diversification, which in turn has led to job creation in the agricultural sector with regard to the feeder farms that provide raw materials; the engineers that set up the production plant and maintain its constant functioning; the factory workers that turn the raw materials into finished product that is then marketed by entrepreneurs, wholesalers and retailers.”
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