Nigerian fruit wastage losses down to 25% on commercial untilisation

Post-harvest losses of fruits such as mangoes, pawpaw, oranges, guavas and pineapples have reduced to about 25 percent, from about 50 percent three years ago and beyond, due mainly to increased commercial utilisation.

Peter Hartmann, former director-general, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), said in 2010 that in Nigeria, post-harvest losses of crops were more than one-third, and for fruits they were about 50 percent in many African countries.

BusinessDay investigations show that fruit wastage has reduced by about half in the last three years, due to more commercial utilisation.

This commercial utilisation of fruits stems mainly from  the growing awareness of the need to consume fresh fruits. At almost every high profile event within the last three years, fresh fruit juices are served, with the producers coming with juice extractors and mixers, mixing the fruits on the spot and serving to guests. Some of these enterprises get paid between N100,000 and N500,000 depending on the scale of the event and the calibre of guests. This business has become so lucrative that professionals such as lawyers, doctors and accountants are taking it up.

Tomi Sanni, a lawyer and owner of Nature’s Best, is one of the many professionals who have a fresh juice service business, with at least three people in permanent employment and several temporary staff engaged from time to time.

“We buy fruits in bulk from a wholesale fruit market at Ketu. Since I sell it fresh, I do not have to undergo the same registration process and obtain a NAFDAC number like other companies packaging juice,” Sanni said.

“Nature’s Best sells directly to the consumers or end users, as much as possible and as fast as possible, after production. It is not really producing the same kind of fruit drink as these other fruit juice manufacturing companies. We serve fresh at events like seminars, cocktails, luncheons or big parties like weddings, funerals, etc,” he said.  

Olutola Oyedele, a researcher at the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT) and fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), said that though there were still a lot of faulty issues in bringing the fruits from the hinterlands – Southeast, Southwest and South-south – to the consumer, the fact that health awareness was increasing, tilting towards consumption of fresh fruit consumption, was helping to mop up some of what would have been wasted.

“But the government still needs to do more because the spoilage of the fruits usually starts from the field and more gets spoilt during transportation,” she said.  

After the effective ban on importation of fruit juice/drinks in 2003, some companies simply responded by importing concentrates which were then mixed and packaged within the country.

Already existing fruit juice/drinks which were having a hard time competing with imported brands were able to have some breathing space. Now locally-produced fruit juice/drinks such as Chivita by Chi Limited also dominate the market.

However, about three years ago, almost a decade after the ban, some big manufacturing companies started or added production of concentrates, fruit juice and fruit drinks to their production lines using fresh juice, but they use very small amounts of fresh juice – 40 percent or less.

Dele Oyeku, a researcher at the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), said fruit drinks are made with less than 40 percent of fresh fruits, while fruit juices are made with about 40 percent of fresh fruits.

According to Nnamdi Anakwe of Foraminifera market research, there is high demand for fruit juices in Nigeria. Anakwe estimates the national demand for fruit juices at 550 million litres, while current supply is less than 25 percent of the demand. 

Popular brands of fruit juices in Nigerian markets are Frutta, Edge, 5Alive, Chivita, Fumman, Dansa, Fan juice, Chi Exotic, Lloyd’s fruit squeeze, Dudu, Cway natural drink, etc. Common packaging includes tetra pak, cans, bottles (plastic and glass) and pouches.

OLUYINKA ALAWODE