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Tomato Industry gets another Policy Boost
Nigeria is one of the major global net importers of tomato paste, while over 40 percent of total local production of tomato is usually wasted. A trend this policy aim to address.
Nigeria's Tomato Industry
The new policy aimed at boosting local production, improving the industry value chain, curtailing post-harvest lost and attracting investment into the industry. According to the Minister, “…government has overtime engaged tomato industry stakeholders on ways to deepen the industry and particularly, encourage the use of locally produced tomato fruits across the value chain. It is in that regard that I am directed to bring to your notice the decision of the government towards boosting production and attracting investments into the tomato sector.”
The multi-agencies policy was developed by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and to be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Water Resources, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Industry and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC).
The new policy also increased the tariff on importation of tomato concentrate among others from 5 to 50 percent with an additional $1500 per metric ton, while reclassification of the greenhouse equipment to come under agricultural equipment in order to attract zero per cent tariff.
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“These include ‘classification of greenhouse equipment as agricultural equipment to attract zero per cent import duty. Ban on the importation of tomato paste, powder or concentrate put up for retailing and others Ban on tomato prepared or preserved by vinegar or acetic acid and others,” the statement read in part.
The new policy measure also restricted importation of tomato concentrate to the seaports to address the abuse of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS); inclusion of tomato production and processing in the list of industries eligible for investment incentives administered by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) among other policy action.
Enelamah stated that “this new policy is at the core of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), which prioritizes agro-allied businesses, an area that we have comparative advantage”He continued: “these measures ultimately, accelerates the growth of the manufacturing industry and deepens diversification.”
“Nigeria imports an average of 150,000 metric tons of tomato concentrate per annum valued at $170million mostly due to inadequacy in capacity to produce tomato concentrate. Current demand for fresh tomato fruits is estimated at about 2.45million metric tons per annum (MTPA) while the country produces only about 1.8million MTPA”.
On job creation and curtailing post-harvest wastage, the Minister stressed that the new policy is expected to create at least 60,000 additional jobs in fresh fruit production and processing while helping to address current over 40 percent of fresh tomato produce lost arising from poor post-harvest handling and inadequate storage.
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On the Made in Nigeria initiative, Enelamah commented that the FEC approved the Made in Nigeria patronage initiative to stimulate local production, create employment and patronage of Made in Nigeria goods and services.
By implication, our local manufactures will have a more conducive environment to produce, policy initiatives to support them and more aggressive funding targeted as MSMEs.
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