Again, Dangote Tomato Processing Factory Shut Down

The Dangote tomato processing factory located in Kano is said to be idle at the moment.

The Bloomberg reported that the farmers engaged to supply the factory with raw materials abandoned tomato farming at the start of the rainy season in May, and moved to cultivation of other crops.

The factory resumed operations in March after being idle for three years.

According to the Managing Director of Dangote Farms, Abdulkareem Kaita, the company is losing at least N30m every month that it remains shut.

The factory, which is said to be Nigeria’s largest, has the capacity to process 1,200 tonnes of tomato a day.

The plant needs about 40 trucks of fresh tomatoes per day with each truck handling 30 tonnes of produce.

Dangote inaugurated the company in March 2016 to reduce importation of tomato paste estimated at 400,000 tonnes annually.

Nigeria is reported to be Africa’s third-largest importer of the commodity, importing from China and some other Asian countries.