In line with the Federal Government efforts to diversify the country’s revenue base away from oil, PorkMoney, Nigeria’s leading pig farming enterprise, is set to launch a pig processing plant in the country to produce variety of pork products for local consumption and exports.
Linda Obi, chief operating officer, PorkMoney told journalists on the sideline of the company’s master class programme for entrepreneurs recently in Lagos.
“We did our research for Nigeria and Ghana and we realise that above N3billion is actual spent on pork consumption annually. A lot of pigs by products are still being imported into the country so there is a market there and we taught of bridging the gap,” Obi said.
“Hence, we are trying to localise pig farming by on boarding partners who come on board with an amount as capital and get between 20 and 35 percent return on their investment after 11 month contractual period.
“We are going into processing of pigs very shortly and we would be establishing a processing plant in the country and we would launch our Porko Yum brand with three products which are sausages, bacon and pork cubes,” she added.
She also stated that pig farming is lucrative than any other livestock farming in the country, saying that pigs produce twice in a year with an average of 12 winners at a time.
Similarly, she noted that a farmer can easily turn a pig to 30 pigs within a short period of time, owing to the rapid growth of pigs and coupled with the low mortality rate.
“Pigs produce twice in a year and can produce close to 11 and 12 winners at a time. They grow to mating at about eight month. You can easily turn a pig to 30 within a short period of time.”
She also stated that PorkMoney is in partnership with the Oke Aro Pig Farm which is the largest pig farm settlement in West Africa to boost local pig production in the country.
“We are also looking at getting our own land for pig farming to boost local production,” she said.
“China and Morocco are big markets for pork and we are looking at that market and also our local distribution channels to meet our local needs by first increasing our production,” she added.
Josephine Okojie
