Candel launches agrochemical manufacturing plant in Nigeria

Date:05-29-2015

Farmers in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, will receive a boost in their annual yields, save millions of dollars in foreign exchange and produce healthier seeds and high quality farm produce with the launch on Tuesday of Candel Company Limited’s integrated agrochemical manufacturing plant.

The Candel agrochemical plant which is a multi-billion naira project and the first of its kind in Nigeria and the West African sub-region, is a facility for crop protection chemical and forliar fertilisers which will not only produce about 80 million litres of formulated products per annum, but would also save Nigeria $400 million in foreign exchange expended annually to import such products.

 “With a 2013 revenue of about $61 billion, Nigeria accounts for less than 1 percent to the global agrochemical industry, while the whole of Africa’s share is just about 4 percent. With no current local production, Nigeria expends about $400 million annually to import agrochemical products, a lot of which is of unwholesome quality”, said Charles Anudu, chairman of the Candel.

Anudu declared that the Candel manufacturing plant was a challenge the firm took upon itself in order to stem the tide of sub-standard agrochemical products being dumped in the Nigerian and African markets which may impact negatively on the economy of the country and the continent.