Billionaire's tomato company threatens to quit tomato production

Dangote also said the company would be unable to pay farmers, from which the company gets its raw materials.

Just a few days after Erisco Food Limited said it was going to shut down its tomato processing factory, Dangote Industries Limited has also disclosed plans to halt tomato paste production citing the harsh operating environment which gives the advantage to imported production.

Alhaji Sani Dangote, Group Vice President of Dangote Industries Limited, said the group was taking this decision as it could not compete with the harsh operating environment.

Aliko Dangote

Dangote also said the company would be unable to pay farmers, from which the company gets its raw materials, unless the government did something urgently.

Speaking at the 2nd group meeting of the Zero Hunger Committee in Abuja, Dangote expressed dissatisfaction over the delay of ministries involved in addressing the issue of tomato production.

Dangote, who is also the chairman of the Nigerian AgricBusiness Group (NABG), emphasized that the only way out was for the government could put a clear cut policy on tomato importation and local production in place.

In his words, “We have been talking for the past one year and up till now there is no clear cut direction where the government is heading.”

He said the current forex policy being employed by the CBN was not stop tomato importers from making profits while the local production companies are still making losses.

“We are not looking for forex. We are only saying that government should put up a policy where we are producing tomato concentrate to those industries that are into packaging; we are not into retail packaging,” he said.

Dangote joins Erisco Foods as the latest company to consider shutting down operation in a move that could see as much as 2,500 jobs lost while Nigeria wades through recession.