Dangote Tomato set to resume production next month as Tomato harvest booms
All is set for the resumption of production activities at Dangote Tomato Processing Factory in Kadawa, Kura Local Government Area of Kano State in February.
The company, which began production in February 2016, had to suspend operation due to paucity of raw materials and forex to import certain inputs for production, the same factor that frustrated Erisco tomato out of production before the end of last year.
Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Abdulkadir Kaita, disclosed this in an interview in Kano, saying, preparation for production to resume was at an advanced stage.
He said the company had to suspend production, when most of the tomato farms in about five states were affected by a pest, which destroyed all the tomato species.
Kaita said: “We expect that tomato farmers would have produced enough for the company to process, hence our decision to resume production in February.”
The key encouraging factor in the views of Kaita is that many tomato farmers at the Kadawa, Kura, Garun-Malam and Hadeja-Jama’are irrigation sites are expected to produce enough for the company to process.
He insisted that “We deliberately decided to resume production in February because we don’t want to create scarcity of the commodity,” and noted further that “We want to make sure that there is enough to process so that its price will not go up.”
The company which had the capacity to process 40 trucks or 1,200 tonnes of fresh tomatoes per day would soon begin recruitment of additional staff.
He added that “All our trained staff are still with us and we are paying them salary but if there is need to recruit additional staff, we will do so to ensure effective service delivery.”
