NIGERIA OPTS FOR IMPORTED TOMATOES

Expert

The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has resorted to a tentative solution to the tomato scarcity. Many would have thought that Tuta absoluta menace has been resolved, rather, the reappearance of tomatoes in Nigerian markets is coming largely from importation.


The resort to import came after so much noise has been made by stakeholders to tack­le the menace of Tomato Ebo­la with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Devel­opment promising to curb the crisis. But the disease is still ravaging tomato farms across the country especially in the Northern part of Nigeria. This has been a concern to many stakeholders in the sector.

The Chief Executive Of­ficer of AgroNigeria, Mr. Richard-Mark Mbaram, said that to­matoes in the market were com­ing from two sources; massive importation from Cameroon and Benin Republic was the first leg, as con­sumers were in need of the fruit.

He added: “70 per cent of what we have in the market presently is coming through those corridors I am talking about. So we have an Eastern corridor coming from Camer­oon and then we have a West­ern corridor coming from Be­nin Republic.

The second leg is from Greenhouse production. Greenhouse production from the other end of the market is more expensive, but actually, the wealthy are dependent on it and so, that is where they are getting services from and 25 per cent of tomato seen in the market is being done by Greenhouse. Then there is a five per cent, which is still coming from internal produc­tion from area like Gombe where terrorism issues have kept people away from those markets. The sanctity of the field that have been retained and maintained, so, Tuta Ab­soluta has not reached there in effect.”

Looking at the fact that Tuta has really decimated Nigeria ca­pacity to fill the gap in tomato demand, he warned that if the issue is not addressed that Ni­geria is already looking at the first season currently wiped out by force.

He added: “We are already devastated to the extent that the first season of tomato produc­tion has currently wiped out in Nigeria. We didn’t have capacity to finally fend for it. If we don’t address it, we will have a situation where we would have lost more seasons.”

Despite the importa­tion from the neighbouring countries and Greenhouse technology aid; which accounts for 25 per cent of tomato in the market today, the price of tomato is still on the high side. Hence, a lasting solution should be sought to tackle the plague caused by Tuta absoluta.