Erisco plans to export tomato paste in 18 months
Erisco Foods Limited is planning to export tomato paste in sachets to several markets in Africa and beyond in 18 months’ time. But the condition is that the environment must be friendly and the company provided with necessary support to grow.
Speaking in an interview, Eric Umeofia, chairman of Erisco Foods Limited, said the tomato processor would need support in the form of loans as well as dollars to import packaging materials.
“If we get necessary support from banks and the Central Bank, nothing will stop us from exporting tomato paste in 18 months’ time,” Umeofia said.
“What many people do not realise is that tin plates are imported from abroad. At the moment, no company in Nigeria produces that kind of quality of tin plates,” Umeofia said.
He said most companies in Nigeria got tin plates from China, stating that he was willing to start producing them locally if he could have access to single-digit loans.
Erisco Foods has 450,000 installed capacity for tomato but its capacity utilisation is less than 20 percent. Umeofia recently threatened to quit Nigeria because his tomato factory was not getting enough support that would support further production.
However, the matter has been resolved following the intervention of Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari.
On how he sourced fresh tomatoes, Erisco said he got them from Kano, Katsina, Sokoto and other parts of the north, stressing that it was a huge cost to ferry them to the Lagos factory.
“What we are doing now is to fast-track the Katsina plant so that our plant will be nearer to the source of raw materials,” he said.
“If you buy fresh tomatoes and put them in a truck tonight in Kano or Katsina, you will get them in Lagos the next day. But the problem is that if you have issues, they will all get spoilt. That’s why we are focusing on our northern plant,” he explained.
He disclosed that there were now improved tomato varieties that could stay between four and five days on transit.
“We are losing money. We are supposed to be doing 20 trucks every day but this is not the case. By the time you add logistics costs, you are left with nothing,” he stated.
He took time to explain that he would not import concentrates because he produced them locally.
“We have passed that stage. I have always maintained that we need to produce what we eat and eat what we produce. Why we are investing in Jigawa and Katsina is that we want to lead this revolution of producing what we eat. For me, all foods imported into Nigeria should be banned because we have the capacity to produce them here,” he said.
He disclosed that access to dollars had been his biggest challenge, urging the CBN to support him and other indigenous players.
“I wrote a petition to the Federal Government. The vice president asked them to clarify. When they went to my records, they discovered that in three years, I had only taken $24 million. But foreigners get $18 million to $21 million at one sitting to import finished goods,” he alleged.
He claimed that his dollar applications had been in various banks for six to eight months, stressing that even when manufacturers had 60 percent preferential dollar allocation, he still got none.
ODINAKA ANUDU