(Ecofin Agency) - Due to a lack of raw materials, the Dangote Farms Ltd tomato-processing factory in Kano had to shut. This was disclosed by Abdulkareem Kaita, manager of Dangote Farms.

“We don’t have enough supply,” Kaita said. “We are hoping to reopen when we get the supplies that meet our demand,” he added.

According to the executive, tomato farmers contracted by the group to supply the input needed by the processing unit are reluctant to grow the crop. This after close to a third of Nigeria’s tomato harvest was ravaged by a pest known as tuta absoluta during the previous season.

“I lost almost everything, so I was really afraid to plant tomatoes again,” said Musa Alasan, a tomato grower in Samawa, near Kano.

Let’s recall that about 8,000 farmers in the Kadawa Valley, not far from Kano, were contracted to supply Dangote’s factory at a guaranteed price of $700 per ton as compared to an average of less than $350 in the domestic market.

In regards to the factory, it was established to process 1,200 metric tons of tomatoes per day for an output of 400,000 tons of paste each year. It aimed at cutting Nigeria’s imports from China that stand at 300,000 tons per year while about 60% of the country’s annual output (1.5 million tons) rots away.