Dangote Tomatoes Processing Plant has established a ₦3 billion Green House nursery in Kano, designed to process over 300 to 350 million tons of hybrid tomato seedlings expected to make Nigeria self-sufficient in tomatoes production.
The Managing-Director of the Farm, Mr. Abdulkarim Lawal Kaita, said that the Green House Nursery would facilitate increased production of high-quality seedlings which the company plans to roll out to tomatoes farmers to both production of fresh tomatoes and locally made tomatoes paste in the country.
Kaita told reporters yesterday that, for the Federal Government to sustain the new quest for consumption of locally made farm produce for exportation, there was need to place a total ban on the importation of fresh and processed tomatoes, as the company has the capacity to produce for both domestic consumption and exports.
According to him, the company’s new investment in the production of fresh and processed tomatoes was capable of stopping the over $350 million the Federal Government was spending annually on the importation of processed tomatoes.
He stated that Nigeria consumes 2.3 million tons of tomato paste, “but we have the capacity to produce 8 million tons annually, exceeding local consumption. You can now imagine how much the country can make on foreign exchange.”