Dangote Opens Tomato Processing Factory

By Casmir Obiegbolu: March 17, 2016

Dangote Group, the Nigerian conglomerate owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has officially launched a $20 million tomato processing facility in Kano state, northern Nigeria.
The new tomato processing plant which has a daily production capacity of 1,200 metric tones per day will compete for a share of Nigeria’s lucrative tomato paste market with cheap imports from China.
Nigeria imports roughly 300,000 tons of tomato paste from China every year, valued at about $360 million. Dangote’s tomato venture will produce more than 400,000 tons of paste annually, thereby significantly reducing the need for importing the food product.
 
Dangote’s facility will source most of its raw material from farmers in the Kadawa Valley in Kano state and will pay them a guaranteed price of about $700 per ton of tomatoes compared to an average of less than $350 which they receive today.
Every year Nigerian farmers produce an estimated1.5 million tons of tomatoes. Of that amount, about 900,000 tons rot, according to information from Nigeria’s Agriculture Ministry. Dangote’s new facility will ensure that very little of the tomatoes farmers produce go to waste.

 Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man with a fortune currently estimated at $16.6 billion by FORBES, is the President of the Dangote Group which owns businesses in cement production, flour milling and sugar refining.