I AM DISAPPOINTED

I'm disappointed. But before blotting out my reasons, let me give you some statistics.

Ivory Coast exports cocoa as its major product to a company in USA called Mars and makes a revenue of about $5bn. This same company imports this cocoa, processes it and makes a revenue of $33bn.

 

An African country once sold its copper mines for about $350m to a foreign company, this company made that amount in three months from the same mines, moreover the payment for the mine was spread over 3 years.


Congo's untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of US$24 trillion. The Congo has 70% of the world's coltan, a third of its cobalt, more than 30% of its diamond reserves, and a tenth of its copper yet it's still one of the poorest countries in the world. Now let's come back to Nigeria, specifically to agriculture.

 

You see, there is something we miss and it’s called "Processing", which is the actual value addition. Unfortunately, here in Nigeria, there isn’t much difference.


Everyone is clamoring for us to go back to the farm but should we really? Let’s analyse this; *I'd rather say we go to technology and take technology to the farm. Let's move from manual to automatic, let's move from subsistence to mechanized, let’s move from past to present and further to the future because we have no choice anyway ( _Evolve or Dissolve_)*. In this industry of agriculture, let's be smart.


There's a long value chain. For example, I noticed a huge gap between harvesting and distribution and to put in perspective, about 40% of our harvested farm produce goes to waste because of lack of storage facilities and distribution (What are you people with money doing?).  That’s something I have personally decided to focus on and I hope you join me.


Within Nigeria, there’s a huge opportunity in distribution of farm produce. Palm oil, crustaceans, vegetables, etc can be taken up North while Groundnut, Tomatoes, Wheat, etc can be taken to the South.


I urge us to find vital roles within that value chain and play our part. We may not all go to the farm but we can all be a part of harnessing our true agricultural capabilities and making a fortune out of it.


I am Klein, how can we do business?


Please share if you find useful

Speak2klein:

Within Nigeria, there’s a huge opportunity in distribution of farm produce. Palm oil, crustaceans, vegetables, etc can be taken up North while Groundnut, Tomatoes, Wheat, etc can be taken to the South.




Please share if you find useful

I have done a bit of research on redistributing and transporting raw foodstuff between the north and south and vice versa.

I was interested in processing and packaging Shrimp, cray fish and palm oil from Calabar to Abuja and bringing down melon seed and yam to the south.

The major problem is storage, tax and levies plus the huge logistic involved in setting up a seamless supply chain.

I explored the opportunities of supplying to major retail outlets like Spa, Shoprite and Co but the have a very limited shelf space for Nigerian food and I haven't found a way to effectively package the foodstuff to last at least one month at the shelf (yam and egusi)

Still working on it though....

GBTYO:


I have done a bit of research on redistributing and transporting raw foodstuff between the north and south and vice versa.

I was interested in processing and packaging Shrimp, cray fish and palm oil from Calabar to Abuja and bringing down melon seed and yam to the south.

The major problem is storage, tax and levies plus the huge logistic involved in setting up a seamless supply chain.

I explored the opportunities of supplying to major retail outlets like Spa, Shoprite and Co but the have a very limited shelf space for Nigerian food and I haven't found a way to effectively package the foodstuff to last at least one month at the shelf (yam and egusi)

Still working on it though....

Wow! Bravo bruv! Interestingly I have also worked on something similar. Crayfish to be specific. There's a huge market, the only challenge would be Logistics and distribution. That's why I advise you have a ready market. Go to your potential client, tell them you can supply, make a deal before you even get the product on the road.

Now I'm not very sure the likes of Shoprite are the best bet. Those guys source directly from the farm. Some have large farms themselves. During the tomatoes crisis, Shoprite had large trucks (cold-chain storage) get tomatoes directly from the farms to the shops.

Start with the cost doing businesss comared with import nations and you will understand why

baralatie:
Start with the cost doing businesss comared with import nations and you will understand why

I'm not sure about that. Let's not take things to the extreme. It's still cheaper to distribute within the country. A freight which can take up to 10-16 tons (12 wheeler).

Speak2klein:


I'm not sure about that. Let's not take things to the extreme. It's still cheaper to distribute within the country. A freight which can take up to 10-16 tons (12 wheeler).

ok let me put it this way.if you use a 16t truck.what will be the cost per basket of yams if the truck is put on route from rither benue or abuja.you will still arrive at a high cost of doing business

Okay! Let's give example of soemthing I do. If you get 300 bags of crayfish bought for about N46k each, you can sell in the north for almost 60k. That will still yield a lot of profit regardless of the 200-250k on transporting from south to north. You get my point?