This is another business that had not been taped in Nigeria and need to be explored by entrepreneurs and investors who are looking for new opportunity. Food is processing and packaging is another facet of food business to look out for this year, as government is planning to create 300 million jobs in one year this will be one of the areas attention will be given to in as supported by vision 2020.
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Why do we have to speculate about this business?
The past and present Nigerian Government is keen to turning attention to promoting Farming and encourages young Nigerians to venture into food production and processing as a medium to create jobs and reduce unemployment in Nigeria. The government is willing to assist young Farmers especially graduates, entrepreneurs and investors who want to go into farming with the necessary supports (loan) and logistics.
What is food processing?
According to WIKIPEDIA
Is the transformation of raw ingredients, by physical or chemical means into food, or of food into other forms. Food processing combines raw food ingredients to produce marketable food products that can be easily prepared and served by the consumer. Food processing typically involves activities such as mincing and macerating, liquefaction, emulsification, cooking, (such as boiling, broiling, frying, or grilling), pickling and preservation, canning or jarring (primary-processing such as dicing or slicing, freezing or drying when leading to secondary products are also included).
This simply means to process food from it raw form into more marketable form, for instance picking beans, packaging and preservation of vegetable for exportation, frying and packaging garri, grind beans into powder for beans cake and moi-moi etc.
How do you start this lucrative business?
First of all decide the area of processing you want to go into because is broad.
- Vegetable processing/packaging
- Fruit processing/packaging
- Beans picking and packaging
- Bean powder/packaging
- Corn powder/packaging
- Dry pepper powder/packaging
- Crayfish packaging
- Cassava flour, starch/packaging
- Garri processing/ packaging
- Cashew nut processing and packaging etc.
A beginner can start with just one of the above segment which the available resources can carter for and lastly
- Learn about what you want to do. Research, develop business plan and set up a structure.
- Attend seminars, training, symposium to gain exposure and insight.
- Seek advice from a professional.
How much do you need to start?
This will depend on the machine capacity you want to start with, the cheapest machine for grinding and dryer is 290 thousand naira then it has to be installed, most of these machines are fabricated in Nigeria while some are imported.
Therefore the budget for small start up is within 700,000 thousand- 2.5 million Naira. With this you can start processing food in a small scale. Is advisable to seek a professional consultants services to guide you in setting up factory. Machines can either be locally fabricated or purchase from China.
Opportunities
There are lots of opportunities in this field, you can process foods and package it with your own company’s name and label to meet international standard packaging. Multinational companies such as Chevron, Breweries, Coca-cola, Hotels etc that have big cafeteria will patronize you and you can supply to supermarkets and exporter.
It is also easy to access loan and grants from Government to expand your production which will not be possible for other entrepreneurs that trade.
How to get customers
For this kind of business of course you need a website to ease your marketing activities, although for this business, marketing your services is very simple, you can get customers from the market place, from internet the food exporters(you can even export), you can tell your friends and members of your church or club what you’re into. Being that food is an essential commodity there is regular demand for food so the market is everywhere irrespective of where you are.
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