Billionaire Dangote Can’t Get Enough Tomatoes to Run His Tomato Processing Plant Profitably

(Bloomberg) – Africa’s biggest tomato processing plant is barely managing to operate profitably, six years after the factory began production because it can’t get adequate berries to crush.
The 1,200-ton a day plant, owned by Sani Dangote, the immediate younger brother to Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is producing at 20% of capacity because farmers don’t have enough resources to boost acreage. The factory was meant to reverse Nigeria’s dependence on imports of tomato paste from China and increase local production. But by 2017, the company had to idle the plant after pests destroyed vast swathes of the crop. It took another two years – and a resolution of a dispute over payment to farmers – for the factory to resume output.
“We haven’t been able to process enough quantity of tomato to make our operations successful,” said Abdulkarim Kaita, managing director of the Dangote Tomato Processing Plant. “At the moment, we are counting losses.”
The crisis at Dangote’s tomato plant is emblematic of the challenges faced by many businesses in Africa’s biggest economy. While tomato farming employs an estimated 200,000 people, banks balk at lending to farmers despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s focus on boosting local production. Such policy missteps, entrenched corruption and ethnic tensions are discouraging investments needed to add jobs in a nation that has one of the world’s highest unemployment rates.

A dearth of clear-cut and realistic plans are eroding the expected gains from the government’s efforts to boost local production, said Segun Ajayi-Kadir, director general of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.
Nigeria is recovering from its deepest recession in four decades following pandemic-induced restrictions. But a sluggish revival and rising insecurity risks are stoking social tensions, according to the World Bank.
The Dangote plant sought to help Africa’s most populous nation cut 300,000 tons of tomato-paste imports from China. That’s even as an estimated 900,000 tons of tomatoes are lost locally every year due to a lack of storage and processing facilities. But farmers have not been able to supply the factory with the volumes needed to run at capacity.
The plant is currently processing about 300 metric tons of the fruit each day, the highest capacity it has achieved since 2015, but barely enough to keep the plant operational. Yet, it incurs the same overhead costs, including power operation, as if it were operating at its full capacity, Kaita said.
Tomato processors also can’t import the berry to make up for erratic local supply as overseas purchases of the fruit are barred by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which refuses to provide dollars to import these items. That policy is also fueling inflation, which accelerated to 22.28% in May, about a four-year high.
Meanwhile, tomato farmers can’t get enough credit to boost output as banks are reluctant to lend for agricultural activities. Tillers have also been harangued by armed marauders and kidnappers.

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“The issue is that our production demand has not been met so far and we need to increase the volume of supply from the farmers,” Kaita said. Most of the tomato farmers live in remote villages and that makes it difficult for vehicles reach them.
To boost the tomato crop, the factory is helping farmers by providing them with improved seedlings and encouraging more people to cultivate the product. The move has helped increase the number of farmers to 6,000 from 1,000 in the last harvest season, but supply still was just enough to meet 20% of the factory’s capacity, Kaita said. Each farmer can produce at least 40 metric tons a hectare.
The company is now planning to create farming clusters next harvest season and is relying on a proposal by the central bank to provide credit to farmers to boost output. “We’re optimistic that the 1,200 metric ton capacity production will be achieved because every season is a learning experience for us,” Kiata said.
(Updates with quote from CEO in last paragraph. An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the plant is owned by Sani Dangote and not Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man. Sani Dangote is the brother to Aliko Dangote. A paragraph referring to Aliko Dangote’s other businesses has also been removed.)

Brarry nugu let the fella open the plant in Kenya nganya tuta muzia akilipa favourably

Produce can’t lack kama analipa poa. Inakaa anafinya watu.

na vyenye wakulima wa nyahururu hutupa nyanya mingi kila mwaka. If @kah tony was not so busy playing pretend cop, he could provide solutions to his poeple

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Before McDonald’s fast food chain opened in India, they identified and trained farmers on potato farming, then provided them with potato seeds , so as to avoid shortages down the line.
The other option that McDonald’s had, was to acquire land in India and grow their own potatoes. Both of these choices are well demonstrated in .ke By Delmonte, which grows it’s own potatoes, and B.A.T, which train assists farmer with their agriculture.

Your ruling class will not allow it.

What a waste. Yaani there’s no one who can process tomatoes in Kenya?

Crushing tomatoes can even be done by hand. But you will run into cartels. They cause tomatoes to be thrown away, to keep prices high. So that they can import from Egypt.

Hii Africa tuko na kashida kwa motherboard.

I’m guessing you meant mango and pineapples ,right?

Kenya doesn’t import tomatoes from Egypt.

How many of you have ever planted tomatos large scale?
Kama hujawahi…nyamasia tu hapo in kanairo in your swanky air conditioned office…you know nothing.
Issue ni ‘expand acreage’

  1. Nyanya ni delicate bana…huwezi shinda kureplant same shamba uxiexpect same or improved output.
    2 fluctuation seed quality…self explanatory
    3 pests diseases…kama sahi huku home kuna blight ingine noma…and it doesnt kill the crop when its young…nope…inangoja utoil ufike flowering stage then the crop begins to wilt ukiona tu…na umetoil kitu 2 months maybe uki water na generator
    4 wakulima wengi wanapanda nyanya mwitu…yaani out in the open…no greenhouse and staking…check points 1 2 & 3
    5 weather…when its dry increased cost of production…when its wet damage from too much water kwanza kwa watu nyanya mwitu

Kama dangote ako serious aendelee tu kuimport tomatos ku sustain his plant…si yeye ni big wig aongee na top dogs guva a concede 15 to 20% kwa his cronies na awachiwe soko ya nyanya.
Jinga kabisa wakulima wata scale up aje na boko haram ina sumbua mwananchi.

Where do they import them from?

Si hata huko yunared states naona wanapanda nyanya mwitu. How do they manage those problems ie 1,2,3.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/kX0uFovy3w5EwhbIOjhB1K6f98G9HtYa3Miiksfly72OdchYl9OUu9loTSsOGgMFf66PxdIGnJY4KSQD7vNSiayup9a4bvlYY8Co4W0dsc75ibCpsDwjnRWr

Sawa but cheki fertilisers seeds na pesticides tunatumia vs hao.
Tena naona tractor sindio…ingia shamba ya waafrika harvest time uone…handling yetu leaves a alot to be desired…na storage jeh after harvest…
Land use pia…is subject to investigation after kuvuna shamba inawachwa kupumzika ama crop rotation…so many an answered questions
Subsidies to american farmers?
Huku hata tunapata fake & expired fertilisers.
Playing field si even.
Compare size ya us na naija…kukiwa na large scale farmers in all those ztates nyanya zitakosekana aje…dangote achukue same approach as i said…a source nyanya from greater africa.
Nyanya ni tricky msee.
Kuna time kila mtu aliplant nyanya karibu sublocation mzima…nika amua si fuati nyayo…i did onions…it was my first time…i made a kill.

Naona some countries do air dried tomatoes. Has this ever been attempted in kenya? It could greatly reduce loses and lengthen storage times.

[SIZE=7]Air-dried tomatoes in Xinjiang sell well in intl market (4/7)[/SIZE]
2014-08-25 09:21XinhuaWeb Editor:Wang Yuxia
Above: A farmer puts harvested tomatoes for air-drying in Korla, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 24, 2014. The Second Division under the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a semi-military administrative body in a few places of Xinjiang, has some of the best tomato farms in China. The farms’ harvest season usually begins in August, when thousands of tons of tomatoes are picked and air-dried. The air-dried tomatoes are then exported to foreign markets with their original flavours and nutritions well preserved. (Xinhua/Du Bingxun)

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Ndio nimeona hii mara ya kwanza.
But unaona hio environment…huku kenya ni from tomato plant to crate ya mkate to back of a canter…or from plant to a cement or mud floor then crate.
Vile tu umeona kwa hio picha ya naija…unacompare day and night.
Hio ya china labda kuna ka processing plant somewhere in the horizon.
Huku people plant to sell…thats all…hawa chinese huoni wanazi slice ndio wa dry…ndio wafanye whatever…value addition.

Yes, value addition.

Njooro canning does

I can assure you tomatoes grown in a greenhouse and out in the open (whatever you are calling mwitu) cannot compare quality wise. Plant the same variety and the green house one will be too watery, huge, flat taste and starts rotting fast. The open field will be less watery, not very huge but will have a distinct rich taste especially when ripening happens in sunny weather. They also last longer.

Sun dried tomatoes have a better quality than machine dried and that’s why their market preference is better.