Nigeria’s first integrated produce city berths in Edo

The diversification away from oil is further gaining traction through private sector led intervention as the ground breaking for the first integrated produce city has been executed in Ugbokun community, Edo state.

The integrated produce city is a 200 hectare industrial park where farmers within Edo state and from neighbouring states including Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Anambra, and Delta will bring commodities for sale directly to bulk retailers through an automated commodities exchange system; eliminating middlemen who profit off the hard work of farmers with little or no value in the chain.
The facility will also offer preservation services, as well as factories to be sited within it for processing of different agricultural produce.

Adams Oshiomole, Edo state governor, who inaugurated the ground breaking event for the industrial park, described it as one that will add value to thousands of people within and outside the state. The produce city will be defined by business, an industrial enclave with as much as 50 factories to be operating from it when completed.

“The next phase of our development must be to focus on job creation, and we must also have a sensible land administration that will ensure more genuine investors get land allocations, and not those who end up racketing them; by speculating on them and even renting out to actual productive people including farmers,” remarked Oshiomole.

According to him, Nigeria’s value should not be quantified by the volume of crude oil that can be exported or had in reserves.

“If truly we are not capable of feeding ourselves (as a country), let us come to that reality, and in that reality lies an opportunity for us to rediscover who we are,” Oshiomole said.

As Patrick Utomi told BusinessDay, the integrated produce city is a combination of commodities exchange, farm settlement, industrial park, farm produce preservation enclave, and export centre.
The industrial enclave’s mission statement indicates it intends to develop a sustainable agricultural produce/product hub that provides real value chain solutions for stakeholders using world-class resources: infrastructure/facilities, technology, human capital, and operations and thereby elevating the operations of stakeholders to meet international standards by operating a farmer growth centred wholesale produce market, processing and preservation park with implement and export centres.

One of the major goals of this initiative is to reduce wastage significantly, anything that is not sold goes to the preservation section, to be done through drying, refrigeration, and silos as may be required.

A visit to many open markets in Nigeria reveals the depth of loss and the plight of those involved in Nigeria’s agriculture value chain. An observation of market surroundings gives an understanding of one of the reasons behind the high cost of food. Around the stalls, under the wooden tables, along the narrow walkways, at refuse dumps around or beside the markets, are heaps of rotting vegetables, fruits and several high value perishable food items that constitute a major proportion of the market stock.

The National Agricultural Policy document for 2016 – 2020 for instance, noted that actual tomato production is 1.5 million tons but 0.7M ton is lost post-harvest.

Similarly, Sonny Echono, a Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, last year said that “Post-harvest losses (in Nigeria) have been estimated to range between five and 20 per cent for grains; 20 per cent for fish and as high as between 50 and 60 per cent for tubers, fruits and vegetables.”

Citrus has national production of 3.48 million tonnes, contributing about 29.71 per cent of the world’s production and 81.93 per cent of Africa’s total output. However, 1.53 million tonnes of citrus production is lost annually as waste while an annual import of N717 million has been recorded.
The integrated produce city, on completion, is expected to stem a significant volume of these wastages, by encouraging farmers to sell off for better prices, and in a more coordinated environment where they can also get to preserve unsold commodities.

The industrial park is to be powered by Integrated Power Project which will provide for a 25MW power plant to be constructed by Paras Energy that will cover the estate, excess from which will be taken up by the Benin DISCO.

There are also plans to have a South African water company that will generate water by damming the river close to the place and providing water for irrigation and other uses by all the factories to be sited there. There will also be an export processing zone and all the things meant for export will come through that zone and those for the local market, there will be uptakes going out.