Examining Erisco Foods’ tomato revolution

In the last six to ten months, Erisco Foods Limited, Nigeria’s frontline tomato processor, has shown that local manufacturers can drive the country’s industrial revival if there is sufficient government support.

Before the Muhammadu Buhari administration, previous governments had thrown the borders open to briefcase tomato importers, who flooded the country with all forms of paste from China, most of which did not meet the 28 percent minimum for tomato, specified by the CODEX Standards and the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS).

Medical experts had warned that some of the pastes in the country could cause cancer, kidney diseases, organ failures and diabetes, among other terminal diseases, owing to an addition of artificial colour to them.

However, with the new administration’s capital control and import-substitution policies, a new dawn in the tomato industry is here, as Erisco, which lost N2.5 billion to such unbridled importation, is back to business.

Erisco now has an installed production capacity of 450,000 metric tonnes per annum in its Lagos factory alone.

The Lagos factory is the biggest in Africa and fourth largest in the world.

Eric Umeofia, founder and president, Erisco Foods Limited, believes that the firm has robust plans for backward integration, which has been ongoing over the past 3 years.

“You have imported tomatoes everywhere, yet ours is more nutritional and are planted in a better environment,” the Erisco president says.

“You ask yourself, why do we prefer tomato pastes coming from places where chemicals were used to preserve them? I use six drums to mix but these tomato pastes are coming from places where they use only one drum in mixing,” he says.

Africa’s biggest economy imports everything from toothpicks to rice.  It is estimated that Nigeria spends about $1 billion on importation of tomato pastes annually.

Unbridled importation has held back the local manufacturing sector and worsened the unemployment crisis that has many social consequences. The unbridled  importation is putting pressure on Nigeria’s naira and foreign reserves and is hurting local manufacturers that have invested huge sums.

Umeofia believes he can change the face of Nigeria’s tomato industry.

According to him, the company is fast-tracking its backward integration programme by developing a technology and process that will synchronise with the existing machines to produce tomato paste directly from fresh tomatoes, in response to President Buhari’s call for Nigerians to look inwards.

Umeofia, who has started the ‘Tomato Revolution’ in the country says he will stop the annual wastages of over 75 percent of fresh tomatoes across Nigeria.

“How can we be watching the efforts of our recently remaining royal farmers being wasted while importers are using our scarce foreign exchange to import substandard food products?” he asks.

He says with the ‘Erisco Foods Revolution’ in tomato paste, Nigerians will be able to eat fresher and healthier tomato paste proudly grown and made in Nigeria.

“Since tomatoes are in rich source of Lycopene (which is a major anti-oxidant), adults and children alike will be stronger and better equipped with the nutrients to face the challenges of personal and nation-building. As we know, healthy person is a happy nation!” he says.

“Despite all the challenges we have faced, we are not owing any staff salary till today. Erisco Foods currently has staff strength of 1,600. By the time we begin to operate at optimum capacity, we should have 9,000 direct staff in our Lagos factory alone. Our backward integration programmes planned for Jigawa, Sokoto and Katsina will generate employment and prosperity for 50,000 Nigerians within three years, while off-takers and our distributors and retailers will be in hundreds of thousands,” he further says.

He adds that Nigeria is uniquely blessed with a special climatic condition which allows it to grow tomato more than twice a year, regretting that the country has remained the biggest tomato paste importer in the world.

Umeofia believes that the President’s resolve to halt importation of what can be locally produced will have long-term positive impact on Nigeria.

He adds that Nigerians must begin to appreciate locally made products, stressing that all citizens should patronise made-in-Nigeria products.

ODINAKA ANUDU