Africa has a serious tomato problem.Tomatoes are Africa’s most consumed fruit (or vegetable); eaten by millions of people across our continent’s diverse religious, ethnic and social groups. Both in its raw and processed forms, tomatoes are central to many African diets and remain a regular ingredient in many
soups, stews, sauces and dishes across the continent. Sadly, despite the ‘celebrity’ status of tomatoes in Africa, our continent does not provide enough tomatoes to meet its own needs. Almost every country in Africa consumes more tomatoes than it produces. The rest is imported from outside the
continent, especially from China – which is now the world’s biggest exporter of tomato products.
I would like to give you a sense of how serious and highly ridiculous Africa’s tomato situation really is, and I’ll use Nigeria as a case study. Nigeria – Africa’s largest country by economy and population — is sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest producer of tomatoes. It produces up to 1.5 million tons of tomatoes every year, making it the 14th largest producer of tomatoes in the world. However, despite Nigeria’s strong position
in tomato production, it still spends up to $300 million – every year — to import tomato products (especially purees, pastes and canned tomatoes), making Nigeria one of the biggest importers of tomato
paste in the world.
Shocking!
But how come Africa’s biggest tomato producer is also its biggest importer?
Well, it appears more than 50 percent of tomatoes harvested every year in Nigeria never make it to the market. Due to poor storage and a lack of processing options, a lot of tomatoes harvested in Nigeria is
wasted. Another reason is, in most parts of Africa, tomatoes are mainly grown by small-scale
rural farmers who have limited access to good seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. They also depend on natural rainfall to grow their tomatoes which makes the harvests unpredictable and inconsistent.
Nigeria is not alone in this. This same ugly tomato situation is at play across the continent; from West and East Africa to Southern Africa. As Africa is expected to have the world’s
fastest growing population over the next 30 years, the number of people on the continent is expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050 – that’s double its current size. If Africa already spends nearly $1 billion
on importing tomato products, how much will we be spending on tomatoes in 30 years’ time?
Unless we plan to remove tomatoes from our diets, Africa must take quick, deliberate and strategic steps to meet the domestic demand for tomatoes, and reduce its dependence on imported
tomato products. Africa still has vast uncultivated arable land that’s well suited for tomato
production. With our favourable climate and abundant labour, our continent has the strategic advantage to become a net exporter of tomatoes to the global market. Fortunately, there are already a few smart
entrepreneurs on the continent who have observed the huge and lucrative gaps in
Africa’s tomato market and are already making some good progress. In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of these entrepreneurs and businesses that are positioning themselves to profit from Africa’s multi-billion dollar tomato consumption market. Let’s meet the Entrepreneurs Solving Africa’s Tomato Problems
If you’re looking to start a business that makes money, I can guarantee you that finding solutions to serious and expensive problems is one of the best and easiest\ ways to succeed in Africa. In Africa, the bigger the problems you can solve, the bigger the profits and returns you can make. By taking on the serious problems of tomato shortages on the continent, these entrepreneurs and businesses are producing local substitute products that compete with – and will eventually overtake – imported tomato products in Africa.
Let’s meet them…
1) Ntuseni Nesane – From Farm Labourer to Tomato Millionaire in South Africa
soups, stews, sauces and dishes across the continent. Sadly, despite the ‘celebrity’ status of tomatoes in Africa, our continent does not provide enough tomatoes to meet its own needs. Almost every country in Africa consumes more tomatoes than it produces. The rest is imported from outside the
continent, especially from China – which is now the world’s biggest exporter of tomato products.
I would like to give you a sense of how serious and highly ridiculous Africa’s tomato situation really is, and I’ll use Nigeria as a case study. Nigeria – Africa’s largest country by economy and population — is sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest producer of tomatoes. It produces up to 1.5 million tons of tomatoes every year, making it the 14th largest producer of tomatoes in the world. However, despite Nigeria’s strong position
in tomato production, it still spends up to $300 million – every year — to import tomato products (especially purees, pastes and canned tomatoes), making Nigeria one of the biggest importers of tomato
paste in the world.
Shocking!
But how come Africa’s biggest tomato producer is also its biggest importer?
Well, it appears more than 50 percent of tomatoes harvested every year in Nigeria never make it to the market. Due to poor storage and a lack of processing options, a lot of tomatoes harvested in Nigeria is
wasted. Another reason is, in most parts of Africa, tomatoes are mainly grown by small-scale
rural farmers who have limited access to good seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. They also depend on natural rainfall to grow their tomatoes which makes the harvests unpredictable and inconsistent.
Nigeria is not alone in this. This same ugly tomato situation is at play across the continent; from West and East Africa to Southern Africa. As Africa is expected to have the world’s
fastest growing population over the next 30 years, the number of people on the continent is expected to reach 2.4 billion by 2050 – that’s double its current size. If Africa already spends nearly $1 billion
on importing tomato products, how much will we be spending on tomatoes in 30 years’ time?
Unless we plan to remove tomatoes from our diets, Africa must take quick, deliberate and strategic steps to meet the domestic demand for tomatoes, and reduce its dependence on imported
tomato products. Africa still has vast uncultivated arable land that’s well suited for tomato
production. With our favourable climate and abundant labour, our continent has the strategic advantage to become a net exporter of tomatoes to the global market. Fortunately, there are already a few smart
entrepreneurs on the continent who have observed the huge and lucrative gaps in
Africa’s tomato market and are already making some good progress. In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of these entrepreneurs and businesses that are positioning themselves to profit from Africa’s multi-billion dollar tomato consumption market. Let’s meet the Entrepreneurs Solving Africa’s Tomato Problems
If you’re looking to start a business that makes money, I can guarantee you that finding solutions to serious and expensive problems is one of the best and easiest\ ways to succeed in Africa. In Africa, the bigger the problems you can solve, the bigger the profits and returns you can make. By taking on the serious problems of tomato shortages on the continent, these entrepreneurs and businesses are producing local substitute products that compete with – and will eventually overtake – imported tomato products in Africa.
Let’s meet them…
1) Ntuseni Nesane – From Farm Labourer to Tomato Millionaire in South Africa
2) Tomato Jos – Processing fresh tomatoes into tomato paste in Nigeria
Started by Mira Mehta and co-founder — Shane Kiernan — in 2014, Tomato Jos is a social business that’s working hard to revolutionize tomato production and processing in Nigeria.
While working with an NGO, Mira experienced firsthand the tomato market glut in Northern Nigeria. During her travels, she would pass miles and miles of tomato fields, and notice the large heaps of tomatoes just rotting on the side of the road because farmers couldn’t sell them. Mira also discovered how, despite being a major producer of tomatoes, Nigeria spends millions of dollars on tomato paste imports. That’s when she made up her mind to pursue the huge business opportunity – processing locally produced tomatoes into high-quality tomato paste in Nigeria.
Today, Tomato Jos operates across the entire tomato value chain (farming, logistics, and processing) and sources raw tomatoes from its network of over 100 smallholder tomato farmers in Nigeria’s North Central region.
Starting with a pilot project in Nigeria’s Nassarawa state, Tomato Jos has successfully raised capital through a variety of channels, including angel investment, prize money from competitions, and crowdfunding. In November 2014, the business successfully raised $55,000 on Kickstarter.
The business is currently in the process of raising up to $2 million in Series A investment.
3) King’ori Mathenge – The Kenyan entrepreneur who grows organic tomatoes in greenhouses.
Like most young Africans, King’ori wanted to work at a corporate job after he graduated from university. But after he spent a year searching for a job and couldn’t find one, he started to think seriously about starting his own business – organic tomato farming.
This 29-year-old entrepreneur currently owns four greenhouses where he farms organic tomatoes using green manure, compost and biological pest control. He gets the manure from the 450 chickens he also raises on his farm.
According to him, greenhouses provide constant warm temperatures that speed up the growth of his tomatoes and reduce the risk of fungal infections.
But starting wasn’t easy. He had to convince his father to let him use the family’s quarter of an acre. That’s where he built his first small greenhouse where he grew 400 tomato seedlings. That pilot farm earned him about KSh90,000 (roughly $900) in six months.
From that first greenhouse, he went on to build three more. To date, he has earned over KSh480,000 from this business and is making further plans to expand.
His biggest customers are hotels and organic-conscious consumers.
I wonder. If just one percent of Africa’s 250+ million young unemployed could start a small neighborhood tomato farm like King’ori, would our continent still have to worry about tomato supply now and in the future?
Africa can lead the world in tomato production!
Africa can surely do better than just meet her own tomato needs. We have the land, human and market resources to make tomatoes a multi-billion dollar business that meets both domestic and international demand.
Gladly, the chain of events that will make this happen has already started. With the efforts of the entrepreneurs covered in this article, and more who are joining them, I’m very optimistic there will come a time when Africa becomes a net exporter of tomato products.
The tomatoes we eat everyday cannot continue to come from Asia, when we have ours. We need to stop this madness.
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