With an annual output of 2.4milion tonnes, Nigeria is the largest producer of tomatoes in Sub Saharan Africa, and the 13th in the world. Notwithstanding, the industry faces challenges with distribution, storage, and disease.
2016 estimate puts total global production at 177mn tonnes. With the U.S, Russia, Germany as world’s top consumers, the market is set to witness a boom with the ever increase in demand for basic uses such as stew, ketchup, salads, juice, cocktails, puree, and paste (Italy, China, U.S, Spain are top tomato paste exporters).
In Nigeria, the major producing states are Kano, Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi. As stated earlier, the industry is faced with challenges and as such farmers lose about 45% of total output to poor storage.
At $68pb, Bonny light is now at a 3-year high. This has helped push up the external reserves to $40.4bn.
As at January 6th, Average power output sent was 3,207MWh/hour (Up 584MWh/h) while Gas constraint was 2,839MW. The grid has been restored following system crash on January 2-3.
The attached slides contain an update of the recent movements in the commodities market, a short analysis of the domestic tomato sector and other core burning issues within the country.
