Tomato Factory to Relieve Burkina Farmers

During his visit to India for the India-Africa summit held last April, the Burkina Prime Minister Tertius Zongo negotiated contracts for various development projects in Burkina-Faso by India, including the construction of a tomato plant, sources from the Prime Minister’s office told APA.

The factory to cost about 7.5 billion FCFA will be built this year in Loumbila (15 kilometers from Ouagadougou).

The tomato processing plant, which was planned to be built in 2005 was still not established, causing confusion among producers.

Tomato production is estimated at about 12.000 tons per year and is the first market gardening production of the country, but its development is confronted to packing, storage and transport constraints. The new plant will allow for producing concentrated tomato, marmalade and other by-products.

After being disillusioned by the farming promotion company (SOPROFA), farmers can now dream anew for a better future.

SOPROFA was created in 2001 to take control of the rice, sesame, corn, fruit and vegetable production sectors (with a target of 140.000 tons/year). It also has the target of producing and marketing 22.000 tons of tomato per year, but farmers were left to themselves without support from the company.

In Burkina-Faso, imports of concentrated tomato were almost multiplied by four from 1994 to 2002, going from 400 tons to 1400 tons, while tomato production has almost halved, passing from 22.000 to 10.000 tons.

Source African Press Agency

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