The Nsukka Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NCCIMA) says agricultural businesses in the area are dying from the high cost of diesel.
The director general of the chamber, Mr. Dan Ochi, revealed this on Friday in an interview with the Nigerian News Agency (NAN) in Enugu.
Ochi, who is also the CEO of Global Farms, said that the most affected were tomato and pepper production businesses that relied on diesel for irrigation purposes.
“We have stopped the production of our tomatoes and peppers because we can no longer run our irrigation machines at the current price of diesel.
“Our business started when the selling price of diesel was N200, but now it is above N800 and this does not support the business in any way,” he said.
The CEO said that companies engaged in the production of fresh tomatoes, yellow and red peppers, popularly called ‘Nsukka Pepper’, had closed their operations, leading to job losses.
“We have a greenhouse farm with an irrigation system where we produce tomatoes and peppers both in the rainy and dry seasons.
“We supply to processing organizations. Sometimes we dry them and sell them locally. We pump water from 650 feet down because water is an important raw material for production,” he said.
According to Ochi, no amount of effort can make one break even with today’s high cost of diesel.
“We were producing a metric ton every month, but most of our workers have been asked to go home,” he said.
He said it was sad that most government policies were not supportive of small businesses.
He described the business environment in the Southeast as bleak due to several factors.
“The business environment in the southeast is poor. The road infrastructure is deplorable, added to the extortion by various security agencies on the road.
“All of this adds up to increase the total cost of goods,” Ochi said.