Mrs Mira Mehta, CEO and Co-Founder of Tomato Jos, a leading agribusiness company based in Jos, has called for more support to farmers from governments at all levels to make them more competitive.
Mehta highlighted the overwhelming dominance of Chinese expatriates in Nigeria’s tomato paste industry while shedding light on the challenges faced by local farmers and manufacturers.
She explained that food manufacturers in Nigeria struggle to produce efficiently, leading to high costs and a reliance on imports to meet domestic demand.
She further addressed the economic implications of food import dependency, stating that Nigeria imports over 30% of its food—a situation with far-reaching effects on local production and the broader economy.
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“This is huge because, to fill the deficit, we have to import food with dollars. With the current exchange rate, this leads to skyrocketing food prices,” she noted.
This dependency has contributed to a dramatic rise in the cost of living, making food increasingly unaffordable for many Nigerians.
“Nigerians are spending a larger portion of their income on food compared to people in other countries, even within Africa,” Mehta observed. “While a Kenyan may spend less than half of their salary on food, a Nigerian will spend almost two-thirds of their income on it.”
This disparity strains household budgets, leaving little for other essential needs such as healthcare, education and savings.
Mehta also pointed out a paradox in the Nigerian food market. “In theory, as the availability of food increases, prices should drop. However, in Nigeria, despite high availability, food prices continue to rise,” she said.
Drawing comparisons with Kenya, she noted that both nations are agricultural powerhouses, yet food prices in Nigeria have surged far beyond those in Kenya. “Two or three years ago, Nigeria and Kenya had nearly the same GDP per capita, around $2,500. However, food prices in Nigeria have soared in recent years, far outpacing those in Kenya,” she said.
She attributed Nigeria’s reliance on food imports to the inability of local farmers to grow crops at competitive prices. “It’s very hard for Nigerian farmers to compete with imports, even when those imports are dollar-dependent,” she said.
Mehta added that higher production costs and poor infrastructure further complicate food production in the country, especially for rural farmers.
Despite these challenges, Mehta highlighted Tomato Jos’s efforts to support local farmers. “The average yield for a Nigerian tomato farmer is 5 tons per hectare, but we’ve been able to achieve 40 tons per hectare with the farmers we work with,” she said, adding that some of the company’s most productive farmers have achieved yields as high as 90 tons per hectare.
She attributed this success to partnerships with farmers, providing them with better inputs, training and financial support. “We provide loans to our farmers so they can invest in the right resources—fertilisers, quality seeds, irrigation systems and so on. We have to spend money to make money,” she explained.
She called for greater government support for local farmers, improved infrastructure, and policies that foster competitiveness in the agricultural sector. Without these changes, Mehta warned, Nigeria will continue to struggle with high food prices and an unsustainable reliance on imports.
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