It was not clear if the new idea to reopen production again is driven by hopes that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) meeting that will end today will ease certain critical portions of the three prevailing rates that encouraged the planned resumption of production activities at the recently shut Dangote Tomato Processing Company, Kano.
But the Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Abdulkarim Kaita, has said the firm would resume full operations in the first week of February.
According to him, “When we stopped production last year, it wasn’t just for the sake of closing our plant. It was because sometime last year, around this period, tomato growers were faced with the ravaging crisis of “Tuta Absoluta” disease, which destroyed tomatoes”.
While brushing aside, issues relating to forex as the main cause of the stoppage, he maintained that “it was as a result of the disease that the firm was forced to suspend production, as there was no tomato available to process”.
“I am assuring you that when February comes and we resume production, nothing would stop us from advancing very well. Mark you, we are getting supply from Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau states and we would producing at about 1, 200 tones per day.
He however appealed to governments to do more in assisting tomato farmers, “especially by going round to the affected farms, and conducting necessary studies with a view to curbing a repeat of last year’s experience”.
“You know the pesticides are not here in our country. You can only import them, so we urge all governments to start making preparations against a reoccurrence. Though we are not hoping for the worst, but precautionary measures must be taken.
It would be recalled that the federal government relied on solutions from Kenya and other parts of Africa where the pest had ravaged crops few years ago to access the solution that cleared the epidemic.
