How To Start Storage Business In Nigeria

Farm Produce storage business is a very cheap way of making millions within a year. You purchase the Farm Produces during surplus then fold your hands and wait for scarcity, you sell the Farm Produces and pocket your profits. Some agricultural produce appreciate overtime because of shortage of the produce in the market and increase in consumption rate. Food is largely or excessively available during harvest but reduce within few days. Some farmers don’t have the way withal to preserve crops and others because of pressing needs have to sell out their produce anyhow. It now presents opportunity for agriculture investors to grab. Farm Produces storage business is very lucrative you can make 100% and above returns on investment.

For about 5 years now the prices of farm produce has consistently been on the increase.

Appreciating between 50% -100% local farm gate to local markets even up to international market.

Thereby creating opportunity to would be investors in the Agricultural value chain. The list of agriculture value chain are; seed companies, farmers, middle men, (market traders), processors, distributors, retailers and consumers. Whichever one you take part in provides profit but the margin differs. Market traders, distributors and processors make more profit in this chain. But in all market traders make the highest profit because they dictate the prices.

Do you know that people who engaged in Farm Produce storage business end up making more profit than farmers? It is better, than fixing money in the bank. Which bank will give you 50% of your fixed deposit within 6 months.

BUYING AND SELLING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN NIGERIA
Agricultural storage business is a process whereby commodities are purchased at a relatively low price either directly from farmers or wholesalers, stored and sold when the produce are no longer in the market or price shoots up drastically. Nearly all Farm produce are in excess during harvest time and become scarce in few weeks.

FARM PRODUCES TO STORE
There are many Farm Produces that can be stored. These includes:
 Melon
 Soya beans
 Sorghum
 Beans
 Maize
 Millet
 Ogbono
 Bambara nut (Okpa)
 Sesame seeds
 Groundnut
 Palm oil
 Cashew
 Ginger
 Dry pepper
 Shear nut

We can share them into groups
1. Mainly for export
 Sesame
 Ginger
 Cashew

2. Feed mill sector
 Soya beans
 Maize
 Sorghum
 Guinea corn
 Millet


3. Commodity: for retailers/consumers
 Beans
 Melon
 Pepper

BEST TIME FOR PURCHASE OF FARM PRODUCE (ENTRY POINT)
November – December
 Bambara nuts (okpa)
 Beans
 Sesame
 Sorghum
 Soya beans

 October – December
 Pepper

September – November
 Maize

August – September
 Melon

BEANS STORAGE BUSINESS
Cowpea also known as beans come in different varieties with varying protein content and price variations. Types of beans are: company, honey, orobo, iron etc. Seed quality and market demand determines the price. White and brown beans are the two major colours available in Nigeria. The white beans are predominantly grown in up North while very few regions grow the brown beans which are highly priced


To succeed in beans storage business, preservation is a major factor. You can easily lose money if you do not use effective preservation method. Because once beans is infested the value drops automatically.

During beans harvest you can buy a bag of beans for N20,000 and sale at over N40,000 during off-season. My sister usually go to village market in Adamawa State sometimes as far as Taraba State to buy beans for storage. We stored some in drums kept at the garage and under tree but the drums well sealed. The ones in bags were stored inside a well ventilated room.

Investors in Farm Produce storage business preserve beans with chemicals that has expiry dates; Either that of 3 months or 6 months duration. You must wait for the months to pass before you start selling the beans. But some investors because of sudden rise in price and demand starts selling their beans before expiration those chemicals.

WHERE TO BUY BEANS?
Brown beans can be purchased in large quantities in Adamawa (mubi) and Taraba. You can purchased beans also from Kaduna, Nassarawa, Niger, Yobe, Bauchi, Kano States etc.
This has been a major challenged because of the cancerous effort of those chemicals Residual of the chemical is known to be retained in the Farm Produces and can be transferred to consumers. You can actually preserve beans and any other Farm Produce without the use of chemical.


MAIZE STORAGE BUSINESS
Maize is another good Farm Produces to store and sell later. So many things can be gotten from maize. It is processed into pap (powder/ wet), agidi, corn flour for baking for alubo like semovita etc. A bag of maize can be bought at N and sold costly during scarcity. About 68-75 modu make a 100kg bag of maize depending on the modu size. Maize is preserved just like other Farm Produces. Make sure the maize is dried, when it is not well dried it turns black. This is the activity of Aspergillus fungus that produces a liver carcinogen which is dangerous to health.

SESAME SEEDS STORAGE
Sesame also known as Beni seed ae used globally especially for prickled pastries applied o bread and hamburger. It is medicinal, the oil from it, is used for cooking and massaging of the body. The oil has the highest anti-oxidant, when compared to other oil sources ad are used in Pharmaceutical Industry. It may not be found in most local markets because it has become a major export commodity. Sesame seeds can be bought as low as N18,000 and sold as high has N70,000. It is predominantly sold in the North central: Nasarawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara. The purchasing price is majorly set by sesame seed agro commodity agents.

MELON STORAGE BUSINESS
Melon storage is another good business to start it is grown commercially in large quantities by the people of Nassarawa and Niger State. Provided the melon is dried and kept in a ventilated place it can last till the next planting season with the shelf life intact. You can buy a bag of melon N30,000 during plenty and sell it as much as N60,000 even more during scarcity.
TIPS:
You must know the time to store a particular farm produce, it should be during harvest when supply outweighs demand.

It is important to know when to sale your stored Farm Produces, it should be 4 months or at most 6 months from the time of harvest. When more than 50% of a produce have been consumed, supply will invariable increase while demand will decrease. You can store up your commodity for the next planting season.

When price goes up and you refuse to sell but wait for it to skyrocket it means you are planning to fail because of greed. You never can tell if demand will drop. I remember 2016 when the price of palm oil was outrageously high people make 3 times the amount they used in buying the oil. So in 2017 the number of people who stored oil increased. Coupled with the fact that red Palm oil from Malaysia and other African countries penetrated and flood the market. As at the time of Palm oil c=scarcity investors were making N1,000 – N2,000 which didn’t go well with some of the investors who refused to sell. When eventually they sold the oil some of them loosed. So avoid greed.

WHO SHOULD DO FARM PRODUCE STORAGE BUSINESS
Anybody that has interest in Farm Produce storage business can do it successfully, provided you have the money. It doesn’t take all of your time. You only buy in bulk during surplus and sell them during scarcity.

Our brothers and sisters who stay abroad and are looking for what to do to produce good dividends should start Farm Produce storage business. You can determine when to sale your Farm Produces. Buy the commodities and store them with the sellers or rent a safe place for storage. It can be inside the market, every market have paid securities.
Another set of people who can do this business are the retirees. Instead of leaving your gratuity in the band and be withdrawing it small-small until you exhaust it, you can engage yourself in this business. At least you will have something to hold on instead of idling away. Most pensioners who are not doing anything but sit in one place day in day out become prone to sickness and die quick compare to those who are active you can verify my claim.

PROFIT IN FARM PRODUCE STORAGE BUSINESS
Farm Produce storage business is very profitable as said. Imaging buying a bag of Farm Produce N30,000 and sell at N60,000. Assuming you bought 100 bags of Farm Produce that should give you N6,000.000. Lets say you spend N500,000 for transportation, warehouse, security and miscellaneous. You will be left with more than 3 million Naira for your pocket. Can you now see how profitable Farm Produce storage business is?. The gain increase as the number of purchase increases. If profit is this much when you sell on a wholesale basis how much more when you retail them! Your guess is as good as mine.

HOW TO STORE FARM PRODUCES
Store Farm Produces in airtight containers such as drums, jerricans that has cover and make sure the openings are tightened. As long as you don’t allow oxygen inside, the Farm Produces will be safe keep the containers in an airy environment or a well ventilated room.

CONCLUSION
Farm Produce storage business is encouraged because instead of allowing food to waste away, it can be stored for money.

Also as a result of our population is ideal we store for the future in other to have every food at all season. That is why Farm Produce storage business should be encouraged.

You may not go to the States to purchase the Farm Produces by yourself. There are trusted agriculture commodity agents you can use.

For further inquiries and consultancy

After setting up my company and real estate, this is another business I will heavily key into.

I rather do this than dumb my money in some worthless bunch of stocks and mutual fund .

It is very very lucrative but capital intensive.. Thank you op... You omitted palm oil

Mide3367:
It is very very lucrative but capital intensive.. Thank you op... You omitted palm oil

11th on the list sir

true

OGWILLS123:
After setting up my company and real estate, this is another business I will heavily key into.

I rather do this than dumb my money in some worthless bunch of stocks and mutual fund .

This is an eye opener, and an important aspect of agriculture that should be invested in for nigeria to attain food security for it's enormous population.
Thank you for this precious infrormation.
I want to ask this question, how can i know/monitor the price from time to time. Must i visit the market everytime or there is a better way of detecting price change?