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A better route to market in Nigeria

[ December 8, 2017   //   ]

APM Terminals is working with produce aggregation, packaging and retailing company Naija Pride and international development groups to provide modern cold chain transportation alternatives for farmers moving their goods from northern Nigeria to markets in Lagos.

It says that an estimated 15 million tonnes of Nigerian-grown perishable goods, including onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, okra, ginger and carrots, are lost annually due to poor logistics infrastructure and high transportation. Ongoing investments by APM Terminals in cold chain transportation could reduce post-harvest losses, and extend the shelf life of fresh produce.

For example, as much as half of Nigeria’s 1.8m tonne domestic tomato crop does not get to market due to spoilage or damage during transportation while packed in traditional woven raffia baskets and moved by conventional trucking.

However, on 1 December, the first trial shipment of 18.6 tonnes of fresh tomatoes, packed into 933 crates each containing 20kg, were loaded into a refrigerated container for the 1,045 km (650 mile) trip from Dutsen Wai, in Nigeria’s Kaduna State, to Lagos. In the controlled reefer environment, heat spoilage, as well as bruising damage from cargo shifting during transport was eliminated with the entire truckload arriving intact and ready for sale or further transport.

APM Terminals partnered with Naija Pride for the tomato shipment, in cooperation with US-based TechnoServe, an international non-profit that promotes business solutions in 29 countries.

APM Terminals Apapa managing director Martin Jacob, said: “New investment in cold chain infrastructure will clearly be an important growth driver for the Nigerian economy. We, along with our partners, aim to offer our landside customers both the service and expertise necessary to protect perishables for domestic markets and open new international market opportunities through Nigerian ports.”

Naija Pride is owned by Emmanuel Ijewere, the vice chairman of the Nigerian Agribusiness Group (NABG) which is co-chaired by Sani Dangote, Dangote Group’s vice chairman. The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID)-funded Growth and Employment in States (GEMS4) program, and the US-based Rockefeller Foundation-funded Yieldwise project were also on-site in Dutsen Wai as observers, providing advice on cold chain supply opportunities that benefit the Nigerian agricultural industry and end-user customers.

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