Locally available tomato fails to quench consumer taste despite over 60% price drop

 

 

The result of this is that consumers now ditch the locally available tomato varieties for imported ones from Cameroon and Ghana, thereby deepening Nigeria’s import bill estimated at $1 billion annually.

 

‘’Tomatoes in the southwest are not produced in large-scale unlike in the north and it has the bacterial wilt disease which causes more than 70 percent yield loss,” said Victor Chikaleke, plant breeder, National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT).

 

“As a result, many farmers in the south plants the local tomato varieties which have large water concentration and tolerant to the bacteria wilt disease. This is why the tomatoes have sour taste and consumers don’t really like it,” he said.

 

Chikaleke stated that farmers in the north use improved seed varieties like Roma Beer and Kilele that are very good for paste and puree production and that is why consumers prefer it.

 

BusinessDay survey indicates that a big basket of fresh tomatoes harvested from Southwest, which sold for N28, 000 in June, went for N8, 000 per basket on yesterday, indicating a 74 percent price slump.

 

Similarly, a basket from the north, which was sold between N35, 000 and N40, 000 last month, now sells between N10, 000 to N12, 000, which is a 70 percent price drop.

 

Again, the price of a basket of Cameroonian fresh tomatoes dropped from N54, 000 to N21, 000, while that of Ghana now sells for N22, 000 as against N60, 000 sold a month ago.

 

The country has almost 180 million population and tomato serves as staple food for the majority of this number. Nigeria is the 13th largest producer of tomato in the world and the second after Egypt in Africa, yet the country is still unable to meet local demand.

 

Nigeria’s domestic demand for tomatoes is put at 2.2 million tonnes, while it produces only 1.5 million tons annually, according to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).

 

“I buy the tomatoes imported from Cameroon because they are bigger, very red and I don’t cook with tomato paste because I detest the taste. It is still expensive but not as expensive as before,” Franca Adebayo, a consumer who resides in Lagos told BusinessDay.

 

The price of fresh tomatoes rose by more than 300 percent between April to June across the country as a result of ‘tuta absoluta’ that ravages the fresh crop, causing scarcity of the produce.

 

But now prices of fresh tomatoes have reduced owing to the entrance of local varieties from the southwest region.

 

“Before now, consumers were left with only one option to buy or not, but when the local varieties from the southwest hit the market, consumers rushed for it. However, they later realised the variety was not what they had thought and had to return to imported ones, which crashed the price of the locally produced tomato,” said Lawal Adam, secretary of perishable goods section, Mile 12 market.

 

“The price of fresh tomatoes is reducing every day, but the prices of local varieties are falling faster than imported ones.  The imported tomatoes are still in high demand than our local tomatoes,” he added.