Nigeria’s ‘tomato Emergency’ Prompts Online Outrage — At Spain - Washington Post


Over the past few days, a number of Nigerian social media accounts have been posting photographs of La Tomatina in Bunol, Spain. For the uninitiated, La Tomatina is a festival that takes place in August and involves 20,000 participants from all over the world engaging in an enormous tomato fight. Some estimates say that more than 100 tons of tomatoes are thrown during the event.

La Tomatina is supposed to be fun. But to Nigerians, it evidently looks more like something else — an enormous waste of tomatoes.

This message online may be tongue-in-cheek, but the problem is a real one. In the past few months, the price of tomatoes has surged in Nigeria: from $1.20 a box to more than $40, according to the BBC ($1.20 translates to about 240 Nigerian naira). One state in northern Nigeria, Kaduna, has been forced to declare a state of emergency in the tomato sector.

Government officials say the culprit is Tuta absoluta, a type of moth that can ravage tomato crops (it is also known as tomato leafminer). At a news conference on Monday, Agriculture Commissioner Maigari Daniel Manzo said the pest had affected 80 percent of tomato crops in Kaduna.

The shortage is a considerable problem in Nigeria. Tomatoes are an important part of the country's cuisine, often forming the base of a stew or being included in other dishes, such as the famous Jollof rice. There have been long-standing concerns that the country cannot meet its own demand. While Nigeria's tomato industry, largely based in the north, is among the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa, the country imports huge amounts of tomatoes and tomato paste, often from China. Domestic growers, hampered by poor storage facilities, find about half of their produce going to waste.

The government has been seeking inventive plans to get around the shortage. In January, Africa's richest man announced a plan to help wean Nigeria off its reliance on foreign tomatoes — a plan that Agence France-Presse reports was supported by favorable government loans. Aliko Dangote had hoped that the Dangote Tomato Processing Factory could eventually provide more than half of the 900,000 tons demanded by Nigerian consumers.

There had initially been some suspicion that the Dangote plant was responsible for the shortage of tomatoes. However, the company announced this month that it would have to suspend production because it could not get enough tomatoes.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/24/nigerias-tomato-emergency-prompts-online-outrage-at-spain/?tid=sm_fb

-CramJones

ok

Obiano is working
Rochas is stealing
Fayose is eating beans


I live in a country were nothing works!

Okay

Honestly, I do not see any issue with planting and harvesting Tomatoes in Nigeria apart from the diseases in some part of the Northern Nigeria.

Our main issue is the insecurity of farmers and the uncontrolled encroachment and destruction of farmland by Fulani Herdsmen from Libya making most farmers to desert their farms.

Lol

hucienda:
Where's Toyin Tomato when you need her?

this one don pass toyin tomato matter o lol

Thread on tomato? I smell front page. At least looking at the bright side, we still have onions which has more medicinal value

one man's groove is another man's suffering

you can shout all you want doesn't translate into the tomatoes coming to Nigeria

tomato is good though

There is God ooo!

Hilarious!

Na Buhari's Change

Na Spain tell una not to invest in agriculture instead of relying on oil?

instead of our gov to import Tomatoes from Spain , Our gov are busy thinking of how to import Grass for the cows, in Nigeria Cows are more important than Human.....what a country

Dis 1 don old jor

disrespect of food.

Lol

They do same with egg too..Nigeria is just a curse, where things common to the outside world is a big deal

YorubaHighness:
Na Spain tell una not to invest in agriculture instead of relying on oil?

Abi?! No mind us, instead of investing and encouraging local produce, we're always buying things from abroad. We have tons of tomatoes rotting away because nobody care to start canning when we had surplus.

crazygod:
Thread on tomato? I smell front page. At least looking at the bright side, we still have onions which has more medicinal value

the rate I eat onions now ehn, hope onion nor get side effects

fiftynaira:
Obiano is working
Rochas is stealing
Fayose is eating beans


I live in a country were nothing works!

Why u no bring ur papa mk he cum lead us. I'm sure ur fada no get primary sch certificate

chai. Spanish people there is God O. Na food una dey waste like this.

What is Toyin Tomato ?

But why have neighbouring countries like Cameroun, Chad, Niger etc not floaded Naija market with tomatoes? That would help meliorate the shortage and deflate the price.