Farmforte, a budding Nigerian
Agriculture startup was the cynosure of all eyes at the just concluded Fruit Logistica in Berlin, Germany
which is the largest fruit and vegetable exhibition on the planet.
Fruit
Logistica covers all sectors of the global Fresh produce trade and provides
comprehensive insight of the latest innovations, products and services in the
international supply chain.
Showcasing
its signature product , the Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes to the over 76,000
participants at the 3 day event, Farmforte's pavilion generated loads of
interest from visitors which were mainly players across the supply chain of the
food industry in Europe. They were apprised about Farmforte's use of technology
in crop production and processing, its innovative value addition model as well
as creation of market access for its produce.
Farmforte's
approach to agriculture has been lauded for its uniqueness given that it plays
across the value chain of specific well researched agricultural produce types
in which Nigeria has an unmatched comparative advantage and yet barely
harnesses the potential.
For
instance, its focus on Sweet Potatoes which would have it planting over 5000
hectares of Sweet Potatoes in 2018 to meet its demand case, has seen it create
outstanding value added products from Sweet Potato chips to flours to purees
and others which it markets alongside raw tubers which are a big hit across the
European continent.
Interestingly,
Nigeria is the second largest Sweet Potato producer in the world after China
but barely exported any tubers until Farmforte came on stream.
It is
also very telling that Farmforte was the First and only Nigerian company
represented at Fruit Logistica which had thousands of reputable Agro companies
from over 120 countries across the globe.
Commenting
on the exhibition, the Co-Founder and co-CEO, Farmforte, Osazuwa Osayi, remarked, “It has been a
huge success, we are delighted to showcase our produce and Nigeria to the
world. At Farmforte, we believe that Africa’s greatest opportunity to play on
the global scene lies in Agriculture. With global populations projected to
increase to over 9 billion by 2050, our focus is on enhancing food security,
sustainability and inclusive development by working with smallholder farmers
across Nigeria and ultimately across Africa”.
With
the reception received at Fruit Logistica and the strong partnerships created,
Farmforte is poised to pioneer the export of top quality Fresh Produce
positioning Nigeria in a class that is comparative with the best Agro exporting
countries in Africa like Kenya and South Africa.
Through
one of its subsidiaries, SP3P Hub Agro
Allied Limited, it is set to develop a state of the art Sweet Potato park
in Edo State which would have farms, a tissue culture lab and an end to end
processing facility, amongst others.
Besides
Sweet Potatoes, Farmforte grows and sources a wide range of other fruits,
vegetables, grains and commodities which include green peas, sweet corn, beans,
papaya, mango’s, plantains, field maize, cassava, cocoa, cashew nuts, sesame
seeds, soya beans and hibiscus.
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