Standup9ja: Dangote farms got 356 tons of tomato from Pyxera - Official

Standup9ja: Dangote farms got 356 tons of tomato from Pyxera - Official

Dangote Farms Limited got 356 tons of fresh tomato from Pyxera Global last year, not 2,073 tons, the farm’s field maintenance and compliance manager, Jafar Sani has said.

Pyxera is implementing the Yieldwise Program, is a $130 million initiative aimed at reducing post-harvest loss in the tomato value chain in Nigeria, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Sani was reacting to the Pyxera officials who said it succeeded in supplying the farm 2,073 tons of fresh tomatoes during the recent stakeholders’ retreat held in Kano.

The Dangote official said, “at the forum, Mr Lekan Tobe, Pyxera’s Project Director of Yieldwise Program during his presentation flaunted figures that were deliberately cooked to impress the audience especially the representative of the Rockefeller Foundation, funder of the project.”

“He stated in his presentation that through their intervention they have succeeded in supplying Dangote tomato factory 2,073 tons of fresh tomato. This is far from the truth as in total, Dangote tomato processing factory from the commencement of production in 2016 through to this season (2017) has only processed 2,200 tons of fresh tomato out of which Pyxera Global supplied only 356 tons of fresh tomato last year and none this year,” Sani told Standup9ja

“They couldn’t supply a single kilo of tomato during the 2017 dry season. The factory operated during the 2017 season from the sole efforts of its staff with nothing from Pyxera,” the Dangote official said.

He said the program dismal performance was the withdrawal of the incentive given to farmers in form of logistics from the aggregation center to the factory at no cost to the farmers.

When contacted, Mr Tobe said “we didn't create figures. We are an NGO; the truth is what we are giving to you.”

“Actually, the total from last year up to now that our farmers supplied is 2,073 metric tons tomatoes only,” he said.

“In 2016 dry season, our farmers supplied 1,358 metric tons while the dry season of 2017 between February and May, is 715 metric tons,” the Pyxera project director told Standup9ja.

He said the figures he announced at the retreat were obtained from their contacts in the field. “They gave us these figures themselves, we have only one contact there. The management of the company gave us who is called Alhaji Bello, he is an elderly person,” he said.

“Last year and this year which brings the total to 2,073 metric tons which were what we presented.

"In the presentation, we only said anchor buyers, we didn't say the company but that is their own assumptions that is them we are talking about,” Mr Tobe said.