Stakeholders to unlock financial investments in tomato value chain

Local and international players in the country’s tomato value chain have strategised on ways to improve operations in the tomato value chain and unlock financial investments along this value chain.

This was at a private sector stakeholders’ workshop on market development in the tomato value chain held recently by Growth and Employment in States (GEMS4) – Wholesale/Retail Sector. GEMS 4 is a project funded by the United Kingdom Department For International Development (DFID) in Lagos, Nigeria on recently.

Richard Ogundele, intervention manager for DFID funded GEMS4 Project, explains, “We are working with partners to unlock financial investments in various operations – tomato production, tomato processing, tomato packaging and tomato distribution. Improving primary handling operations – fresh produce packing house models, returnable plastic crate rental models, expansion of cold chain services for transport and storage and capacity building in good handling practices for fresh produce.”

The workshop brought together various stakeholders in the tomato industry to explore ways to develop the tomato value chain in Nigeria.

During the technical and plenary sessions, there were in-depth deliberations on how to unlock financial investments in production, processing, packaging and distribution; improve primary handling operations from farm to processing centers; and improve and expand support services like structuring farmers’ organisations, improving technical and managerial skills, agricultural extension and training, storage and transportation – all within the tomato industry.

During the workshop several business linkages were made between different partners to work collaboratively on different business plans.

M. Manoj of Origin Group, Vegefresh stated. “…let us not look at each other as competitors but supplementing each other…we can gain a lot and understand how we can actually reduce wastage of produce and increase yield.”

Also at the forum, Olawunmi Funsho, senior special assistant to the Lagos state governor on agriculture and cooperative said, “This is an issue that I have been trying to find a solution to which I think GEMS4 can do something. There are issues that have to be addressed if the industry is to succeed. Like the minister of agriculture said agriculture is no long a developmental business but a business itself…”

Also, issues of Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) and ways to ensure that women get more significant roles to play in developing the sector were also discussed. It came to the fore that in some cases women were known to be ill-informed of the market situations in the sector.

Nigeria is considered the second largest producer of tomato in Africa and 13th in the world but up to 50 percent of tomato produced in the country is lost due to lack of storage and under- developed marketing channels.

The forum drew large participation from stakeholders which included tomato farmers, Vegefresh/Origin group; Bank of Agriculture, Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN); Growth and Employment in States – Business Environment (GEMS3); Fresh Fruits Vegetable Dealers Association of Nigeria (FFVDAN); Novus Agro; Nigeria Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI); Total Agric Solution; Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Afrofoods; Lagos State Agricultural Development Programme; Syngenta; Ministry of Agriculture, International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC); Agricultural Fresh Produce Growers & Exporters Association Of Nigeria (AFGEAN); Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Union Bank and so on.