Nigeria: 'Made-in-Narict Tomatoes Will Save N19 Billion (121 mln USD) for Nigeria'

Zaria — Director General of the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria, Professor Idris Bugaje, yesterday said the main aim of introducing the institute's tomatoes paste technology is to save the N19 billion (121 mln USD) that Nigeria spends in the importation of paste tomatoes annually.

A statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of NARICT, Bala Aliyu, said Professor Bugaje made this known while unveiling the paste tomatoes that NARICT is producing in collaboration with Vietnamese Engineers. "One of NARICT's mandates is the utilisation of agricultural raw materials and conversion into industrial products.

Tomato is one among these abundant raw materials produced in large quantities in Zazzau Emirate, Kaduna State, as well as many other states in Nigeria. The tomato industry is one of the sub-sectors where Nigeria is highly advantageous. Nigeria is ranked the 2nd largest producer in Africa and 13th largest in the world, producing 1.170 million tonnes of Tomato.

Despite this advantage, Nigeria imported processed tomato paste to the tune of 65.809 tonnes valued at N11.7 billion ($77.165million) in 2009. The current import bill is about N19 billion. The reason for this is not far-fetched, as not less than 40 per cent of the tomatoes produced in the country are lost due to lack of preservation, poor storage, humid wealth condition, transportation risk, escalated by poor marketing and absence of appropriate technology to harness these resources", part of the statement read.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201303120667.html