We’ve been running at a loss in the last 9 months – Erisco Foods

Erisco Foods Limited yesterday raised an alarm that it has been selling its products at a loss in the past nine months.

It said this was due to the high rate at which imported banned tomato paste in retail packs had flooded the market for over three years despite a report by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) that 91.1% of the imported tomato paste are substandard.

Managing Director of the company, Mr Nnamdi Umeofia stated this while receiving a team from the Army War College Course 6/2022 who was on Environmental Study Tour to Erisco Foods.

The team, led by Brig. General Mathew Oyekola was at the company to assess the level of industrialisation and localisation of Erisco Foods Limited, a member of the Erisco Bonpet Group.

The MD spoke just as the President/CEO of the Erisco Bonpet Group, Chief Eric Umeofia noted that if Nigeria had been doing well in the area of industrialisation, there would have been no need for the government to budget so much in tackling insurgency.

The MD said, “We have stocks of goods worth over N4bn for about nine months, which we have been finding very difficult to sell due to the high production cost and the flooding of our markets with imported substandard tomato paste by the import cabals with support of our FOREX.”