Nigeria’s growing number of foreign and local megastores are taking more stock from local farmers and processors, departing from the former practice of stocking almost exclusively imported foods.
This developing trend is leading to expansion in local farming, processing and packaging businesses, as well as creating hundreds of jobs and elevating more people from these sectors into the country’s growing middle class.
BusinessDay findings show that locally-grown and processed foods on the shelves of the megastores have increased by about 50 percent in the last two years. Industry watchers say this is due to increasing demand by Nigeria’s growing middle class who are motivated by aspirational shopping habits and health concerns.
The health awareness of the middle class is particularly enriching local poultry farmers, as many Nigerians now shun imported chicken and other poultry products because of the said harmful chemicals used to preserve them. Local poultry has replaced imported chicken in the megastores.
Local foods are now stocked along with some foreign brands, and some indigenous foods such as bush mango (ogbono), crayfish, locust beans, yam flour (elubo), fufu and egusi are not burdened by foreign competition because they are almost exclusive to this locality or are only processed to Nigerian tastes here.
Other locally-produced foods found in the megastores include cashew nuts, gari, honey, palm oil, groundnut oil, powdered yam, powdered plantain, eggs, confectioneries, spices, as well as vegetables and fruits.
Though these foods have been produced and sold for decades in the open-air markets within the country, the improved packaging in which they are now offered by the producers or processors has made them acceptable to the middle class who now shop even for foodstuffs in megastores or supermarkets, as against the old practice of patronising open-air markets where haggling takes place and hygiene is suspect.
These foodstuffs go through very minimal processing after they are harvested, so the main difference between them and those sold in the open market is the higher level of hygiene and the packaging.
But some other foods such as plantain chips, cereals, beverages and soft drinks have very stiff competition from imported brands, as the local products are usually more expensive. But most of the imported foods such as canned sweet corn and canned potato chips currently have no competition from local brands. Yet, the technologies for the manufacture of these foods are available in Nigeria.
Edobong Akpabio, chief executive, Visionage Agrotech Farm, attributed this to the higher prices of locally-produced foods and the non-existence of foods such as locally-produced and packaged sweet corns and canned potato chips, as well as the high cost of infrastructure, especially power.
Ndidi Nwuneli, co-founder of AACE Foods, said plantain chips produced in Ogun State cost more in Ebeano supermarket on Lagos Island than plantain chips brought in from the Caribbean, adding that Nigeria’s food suppliers still need to work on distribution networks to be more competitive.
This implies that the upsurge in sales of local foods such as ogbono and yam flour has been because there is no competition from foreign brands as America, Europe and South Africa where most of Nigeria’s imported foods come from do not have equivalents.
Due to outcry by local producers, many leading retail shops in the country now also stock locally-produced foodstuffs such as tomatoes, onions, cucumber, cabbage and carrots which were still being imported into the country about two years ago.
Akpabio, who is also a consultant, said the first locally-produced foodstuffs to gain entry into retail shops in Nigeria were those packaged by exporters of local foods. Due to strict specifications by the regulatory authorities in these foreign countries, these food exporters were the first to understand and adhere to processing and packaging specifications expected by the highbrow retail shops.
Ernest Onoja, manager, Favour Foods, said even though he had been involved in the processing and supply of local foodstuffs for several years, it was in the last two years that there was mass acceptance by retail shops in Nigeria. “That was after we improved on the packaging,” he said.
Nnamdi Anakwe of Foramifera Market research also agreed that the marked improvement in packaging of traditional Nigerian foods has made them acceptable by both foreign and locally-owned retail shops.
“It was difficult convincing retailers to have my product on their shelves, probably because the product is not popular. Dried mushrooms are rarely available in the market here. You commonly get the imported ones in cans. Some of the supermarkets are so sceptical that they demand assurance from regulatory bodies such as the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC),” said Chiamaka Uzendu, producer of dried mushrooms, who started her business about a year ago and has not been supplying to any supermarket until recently.
She noted that locally-owned retail shops are more accessible to small food processors and suppliers than the big international retail stores.
Currently, most people, especially the emerging middle-class in the country, patronise the modern grocery stores which were until recently considered to be exclusively for the elite. Though these international retail shops showed stiff preference to stocking of foreign foods some years ago, increased demand by Nigerians for locally-produced foods, particularly those with no equivalent imported ones, is changing the trend.
By: ANNE AGBAJE & OLUYINKA ALAWODE
