GBfoods, a culinary products manufacturer, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Kebbi State Government and the Emirate of Yauri, has completed the building of a N20bn tomato processing factory, in Kebbi State.
A statement from GBfoods says the factory is the second largest in Nigeria and the only fully backward integrated plant in the Economic Community of West African States, and has the largest single tomatoes farm in Nigeria.
When all phases of the project are finished, it stated, the factory would be the largest fresh tomatoes processing factory in sub-Saharan Africa.
The statement said, “The investment in the world-class factory and adjoining farm includes a drip irrigation and fertigation infrastructure, greenhouses, seed planting robots, an incubation chamber and a plethora of agricultural machinery.
“The farm will serve a dual purpose. It will produce industrial tomatoes in the dry season and soya beans in the raining season.
“The tomato factory will convert fresh tomatoes into tomato concentrate used for producing Gino Tomatoes Paste and Gino Tomato Pepper Onion Paste while the soya beans will be used to process soya-bean oil which is a critical ingredient for GBfoods’ Bama and Jago Mayonnaise.”
It added that the project created over 1,000 jobs including 500 farming jobs, 150 factory jobs and 150 construction jobs.
GBfoods stated that it also engaged many smallholder farmers as out-growers.
The company said it also provided the out-growers with tomato seedlings, agrochemicals and various equipment such as water pumps and hose pipes and enabled them to access water in the dry season.
“GBfoods also supported the host communities by providing and maintaining 16 boreholes of drinking water, a first for some of the surrounding villages,” it added.
The statement said the factory was fully backwardly integrated to the company’s farm and dedicated out-growers.
In the coming tomatoes season, it added, the plant would also source most of its raw materials from out-growers who will grow the tomatoes on their own farms and from GBfoods’ owned and operated farm.
It added that the factory was engaging over 5,000 smallholder farmers as out-growers in the coming tomatoes season to grow fresh tomatoes.
Source: Punch Newspaper
