Nigeria in 2020, attracted a whopping sum of N20 billion tomato processing factory in investments from Gallina Blanca (GB) Foods that would drastically reduce its reliance on imports of tomato pastes, most especially. The factory located in the Gafara village of Ngaski Local Government Area of Kebbi state, is the second largest in Nigeria and the only fully backward integrated plant in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and has the largest single tomatoes farm in Nigeria.
The farm and factory, spanning 1,500 hectares of land, boasts of a 620-metric-tonnes-per-day processing plant and generates 2,000 jobs, which GB Foods plans to double in the next expansion phase. The investment, in the world-class factory and adjoining farm, includes a drip irrigation and fertigation infrastructure, greenhouses, seed planting robots, incubation chambers and a plethora of agricultural machinery. This means that the GB Foods tomato plant can process 226,300 metric tonnes (MT) of tomatoes each year. Africa’s biggest economy produces 1.5 million MT of tomato per annum, with 0.7 million MT post-harvest loss.
“The tomato factory will convert fresh tomatoes into tomato concentrate used for producing Gino tomato paste and Gino tomato pepper onion paste, while the soya bean will be used to process soya-bean oil, which is a critical ingredient for GB Foods’ Bama and Jago Mayonnaise”, stated GB Foods Corporate Affairs Director, Teddy Ngu during the factory’s opening in 2020. Data sources have it that tomato demand in Nigeria is put at 2.2 million MT per annum, leaving a gap of 700,000MT. GB Food’s plant will ensure that at least 226,300 tonnes are removed annually from the total import bill. An expansion of its capacity will ensure that tomato paste importation into Nigeria crashes further.
Nigeria is the 13th largest producer of tomatoes in the world and the second after Egypt in Africa, yet the country is still unable to meet local demand because about 50 per cent of tomato produce is wasted due to lack of storage facilities. Experts say investment by GB Foods will close the demand-supply gap in the industry as well as the N16 billion annual import bill. GB Foods has a wide range of quality established brands in Nigeria such as Gino Tomato Paste, Bama and Jago, Gino Tomatoes Mix, Gino Pepper Onion, Gino Thyme; Gino Curry; Gino Chicken and Beef Cubes; Bama Mayonnaise as well as Jago Mayonnaise. GB Foods, which started in Barcelona, Spain in the 1937, has operations in seven African countries, including Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Benin Republic and Guinea Conakry.
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