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| Fotolia / TNS |
Over the past few days, a
number of Nigerian social media accounts have been posting photographs of La
Tomatina in Bunol, Spain.
The
Washington Post report continues:
For
the uninitiated, La Tomatina is a festival that takes place in August and
involves 20,000 participants from all over the world engaging in an enormous
tomato fight. Some estimates say that more than 100 tons of tomatoes are thrown
during the event.
La
Tomatina is supposed to be fun. But to Nigerians, it evidently looks more like
something else - an enormous waste of tomatoes.
"Imagine
how much tomatoes over 20,000 people are going to be tomato fighting with
meanwhile in Nigeria . . . ," noted one tweet.
Another:
"Tomato Throwing Festival In Spain! Tomato is Priceless and Scarce In
Nigeria!"
"Nigerians
Watching Spain Celebrating Tomato Festival, When four pieces of Tomatoes is ₦200 in Nigeria," another tweeted.
This
message online may be tongue-in-cheek, but the problem is a real one.
In the
past few months, the price of tomatoes has surged dramatically in Nigeria: from US$1.20 a box to more than US$40, according to the BBC.
One state in northern
Nigeria, Kaduna, has been forced to declare a state of emergency in the tomato
sector.
Government
officials say the culprit is Tuta
absoluta, a type of moth that can ravage tomato crops (it is also known as Tomato Leafminer). At a news conference
on Monday, Kaduna State’s Agriculture Commissioner Maigari Daniel Manzo said
the pest had affected 80 percent of tomato crops in Kaduna.
The
shortage is a considerable problem in Nigeria. Tomatoes are an important part
of the country's cuisine, often forming the base of a stew or being included in
other dishes, such as the famous Jollof rice.
There have been long-standing
concerns that the country cannot meet its own demand. While Nigeria's tomato
industry, largely based in the north, is among the biggest in sub-Saharan
Africa, the country imports huge amounts of tomatoes and tomato paste, often
from China. Domestic growers, hampered by poor storage facilities, find about
half of their produce going to waste.
The
government has been seeking inventive plans to get around the shortage. In
January, Africa's richest man announced a plan to help wean Nigeria off its
reliance on foreign tomatoes - a plan that Agence France-Presse reports was
supported by favorable government loans. Aliko Dangote had hoped that the
Dangote Tomato Processing Factory could eventually provide more than half of
the 900,000 tons demanded by Nigerian consumers.
There had initially been some suspicion that the Dangote plant was responsible for the shortage of tomatoes. However, the company announced this month that it would have to suspend production because it could not get enough tomatoes.
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