The official launching ceremony of the solar-power installed
capacity cold room designed for 24/7 off-grid food storage and preservation
took place at the CBD Tomato Market in Elesokan on Wednesday, February 1, 2023,
where experts and end users expressed happiness for the cold room facility
which would end post-harvest loss in that axis.
Speaking at the occasion, Chairman/CEO of ColdHubs, Nnaemeka
Ikegwuonu said that Cold hubs are solar-powered walk-in cold rooms designed to reduce
food spoilage. “The work we are doing is to reduce food spoilage using this
solar-powered cold rooms. So we as a company build cold rooms in food markets
for storage of fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and other perishable foods.”
Ikegwuonu disclosed that Coldhubs started in 2015 and today,
they are 26 states “We started out in 2015 as a small company and from that
humble beginning we are presently running 58 Cold hubs in 26 states of Nigeria.
“We are present in the southwest of Nigeria, we are present
in the northeast, northwest, in the north central, in the South-South, Southwest
and Southeast of Nigeria. These 58 cold hubs are at the moment serving 6,371 users,
they range from farmers, retailers.”
He said the unveiling of the cold room at the Abat CBD
Market was a celebration of a successful partnership between Coldhubs and Heifer
International. “We are here today to celebrate the successful partnership
between Coldhubs and Heifer International. Heifer International is one of the
oldest NGOs in the world, and two years ago we started receiving support from
Heifer International. The support is really important for us to deploy 10 cold hubs
across Nigeria, eight of them of 3tonnes capacity and today, 6 of those 3 tonnes
capacity have already been installed. So we have cold hubs in Shasha Market in
Ado-Ekiti, in Shasha Market, in Akure; we also have in Sabo Market in Ore. We
have in Bodija Market in Ibadan, we have in Kuto Market in Abeokuta; we also
have in Abat CBD Market in Ibeju Lekki.”
Ikegwuonu said cold storage can extend the shelf life of
food produce “The goal is to provide cold storage to outdoor food markets, and using
this cold storage the people can actually extend the shelf life of food. “Instead
of tomato staying for two days or three days, you can actually store tomato
with its optimal cooling temperature and extend the freshness, the quality, the
water content, no discoloration for the next 21 days.
“Really what we are doing and what Heifer did was to support
us to deploy eight of these cold hubs of 3tonnes capacity in the Southwest, and
two of the 100tonnes capacity in the North Central. So we also have one going
on in Jos at the moment and another one being built in Dan Magaji Market in
Zaria. So in Jos we are doing 100tonnes capacity in Paringada Market. So all
this is as a result of our partnership with Heifer International.”
While thanking Heifer International, Ikegwuonu, urged the
traders in market to put the facility into good use. “Today we are totally
grateful for the support that came to us from Heifer, and we want to provide
this technology and service to the benefit of the retailers in Abat CBT Market;
use this cold room, extend the shelf life of food, your fruits and tomatoes, your
green beans, spring onions, carrot, anything you want to store, store it here,
store it and keep it fresh, store it and make sure that you extend the shelf
life, instead of keeping tomatoes for two days you can keep it for three weeks,
the same content, the same colour, the same quality, the same weight. So this
is a very critical infrastructure that has been provided to the market and I am
advising the market to also use it, we are also advising them to protect the
infrastructure, see it as their own, protect it as much as possible, because it
will benefit them, it will benefit your income, and benefit your business.”
Honourable commissioner for Agriculture, Lagos State, Abisola
Olusanya represented by the Director, Lagos Agricultural Training Institute, Mr
Emmanuel Audu, spoke on what Lagos State is doing in the agriculture value
chain. “What we are doing here today is of paramount importance to the ministry
of agriculture. In 2021 we launched a document called the five-year
agricultural and food systems roadmap to guide the development of agriculture
in Lagos State. We realised that Lagos State produce just about 18% of the
total food requirement, now about 50% of it also goes into what is called the
post-harvest loss which means we are not producing enough and even at that 50%
of what we are producing are wasted because of inappropriate handling,
inappropriate logistics services, and inappropriate cold chain facilities.”
He said the launch of the document also seek to securing partnerships
from private sector organizations and multilateral organisations to partner
with government for specific interventions that would boost food production,
support processing and advance food preservation in the state, and that is why
Heifer International and Coldhubs have established this partnerships that is
bringing about this facility.
He decried the fact that farmers work hard but they are
still poor. He said “Farmers occupy the highest level, but farmers are poor,
why is that so? They are people that are energetic, they dissipate energy, they
work the field, work the land, yet are not deriving maximum benefit from their
labour, why? Post-harvest loss. Farmers are stampeded into to sell their
product due to inadequate storage facilities. So I am particularly glad this
facility will help address the issue of economic loss to farmers which means
farmers and traders can be assured of enhanced economic returns.”
Country Director, Heifer International Nigeria, Mr Rufus
Idris, spoke on the partnership and contributions of his group to food storage.
He said that his organization is an international development organization
headquartered in United States of America with one major mission, and that
mission is to end hunger and poverty. “This we have done for more than 78 years
globally. You will agree with me that there is no way you can end hunger or you
can end poverty without intervening in the agricultural space. In Nigeria our
main aim is how do we solve the major problems affecting us in the agricultural
sector? If we can address that you are sure that we can ensure food security,
you are sure people can feed themselves, and that way they can end hunger. In
agriculture we can create jobs and employment for people especially for our
young people that currently rank among the highest unemployed people in this
country today. We can create jobs, we can help farmers themselves increase
their incomes, and ensure that you can sustain this income to ensure that they
are now completely out of poverty, and that way we would say we have been able
to address the issue of hunger and the issue of poverty as well.”
He said with the cold hub, the farmers and traders could
actually increase the shelf life of their produce and reduce drastically post-harvest
losses. “Today we are here to launch this hub that will help farmers and
marketers of tomatoes, vegetables increase shelf life of their produce. We all
know that 40% to 50% of farm produce in Nigeria currently goes to waste after
being harvested, because there is no proper infrastructure to keep those things
alive, keep them fresh for a longer period of time.
“So our partnership here today is to see that the food gets
to the market and to ensure that for 24 days or more the food or tomato remains
fresh, that way farmers, marketers, and traders can earn the money they required
to earn from the tomato they purchased from farmers, and that way we can
guarantee their income and not losing money because a lot go to waste. It will
also reduce the pressure on the sellers to want to sell cheaply because of lack
of storage facility,” he stated.
Samson Iwalei who is the market leader, Abat CBD, thanked
Coldhubs management for bringing the facility to the market adding that the
intervention has saved his colleagues the ordeal of travelling miles to store
and preserve their perishable food materials. While Chinedu Nwadike a senior
personnel with Coldhubs spoke on the post-harvest management education
programme which involves meeting with the traders and farmers on the best way
to utilize the cold rooms.
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