Nigeria tomato processors faced with cheap imports and infrastructure challenges

Nigeria is Africa's second largest tomato producer with 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes annually, yet 45 percent of the produce will often perish. Tomato processing factories in the country are working to secure the market and keep out cheap imports, but lack of adequate facilities is making it difficult to produce tomato paste, a staple in the West African nation.
At Erisco Foods Limited in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, tonnes of tomatoes are being processed into paste for sale in the country.
Established in 2008, the foods manufacturing company deals in various commodities and started its tomato processing line in 2011.
Erisco is among the few companies that manufacture tomato paste in Nigeria where they have had to compete with cheap imported brands that saturated the market for years.
Eric Umeofia, the chief executive of Erisco says he started the company with a capital of 75 million dollars. He says that doing business in the country is becoming more difficult every day.
Poor transport infrastructure, cheap imports and unreliable power supply are some of the major obstacles in the way of investors.
Umeofia says his factory wants to avoid wastage by processing surplus produce from farmers. But he would like to see the government support the business more.
Tomato paste is a key ingredient in many popular Nigerian dishes like jollof rice and tomato stew.
The country produces about 1.5 million tonnes of tomatoes annually of which 45 percent perish.
Transport is poor and Nigeria lacks facilities to produce the concentrate needed by factories making tomato paste.
Consumers spend 360 million US dollars on tomato paste imported from countries such as Italy and China.
The "Mile 12" market in Lagos, the biggest one stop tomato shop in West Africa has a daily turnover of about 1,500 metric tonnes of tomatoes.
Africa's biggest economy and top energy producer has also been hammered by low crude prices, since it relies on oil exports for around 70 percent of government revenues.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office last year, has said a strengthened agriculture sector would create jobs and reduce the reliance on costly food imports.
The inability of farmers to feed a nation of 170 million people has led to an increasing reliance on imported food in Nigeria.
Last year the government effectively banned the import of almost 700 goods to prevent a currency collapse and encourage local manufacturing, but analysts say many items listed are not available in Nigeria in sufficient volumes.

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Pictures courtesy: Angela Ukomadu