Every harvest, Ibrahim Idris, a 47-year-old farmer in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, faces a race against time and temperature to get his produce to market before it spoils.
He transports 100 baskets of tomatoes on a light truck, spending as many as four days navigating bad roads, security risks and scorching heat. By the time he reaches Lagos, about 20 baskets have softened, cracked or rotted.
“The loss was about one million naira, for 20 baskets, and a basket is worth N50,000,” Idris said.
Terhemba Aondona, a citrus farmer in Vandeikya, Benue State, faces similar losses. During his last harvest, he loaded 150 baskets of oranges onto an open truck without ice or adequate cover for the journey to Lagos.
The trip takes two days if it does not rain and the vehicle does not break down. By the time he arrives, some of the fruit has spoiled.
“About 30 baskets have burst, fermented and collapsed into sticky pulp. The road and the sun chopped our profit. N600,000 is gone before we sell one orange,” Aondona said.
Aondona said he would have to recover the loss from the remaining 120 baskets, potentially passing some of the cost on to consumers.
Together, Idris and Aondona said they lost N1.6 million worth of produce during transport.
The Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA) estimates that Nigeria operates at less than 4 per cent of its required cold-chain capacity and has a deficit of 6,000 to 7,000 refrigerated trucks.
Alexander Isong, OTACCWA’s president, said poor cooling networks cost the Nigerian economy between N3.5 trillion and N5 trillion ($4.5 billion to $9 billion) annually.
Industry estimates put post-harvest losses at 50 to 60 per cent for fruit, 20 per cent for vegetables and tubers, 20 per cent for fish and up to 20 per cent for grains. OTACCWA estimates that more than 40 per cent of Nigeria’s food production, or over 20 million metric tonnes, is lost to spoilage each year.
The Poison Consumers purchase
The financial toll is only part of the problem. Without pre-cooling, cold storage or refrigerated transport, fresh produce can remain at temperatures that encourage harmful bacteria and fungi to grow.
Adebukola Omidiran, a senior lecturer in food science and technology at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said transporting tomatoes without suitable crates and cold-chain infrastructure increases the risk of damage and contamination.
“The whitish substance that forms on the softening fruit indicates mould growth capable of secreting dangerous chemical compounds,” Omidiran said.
Some mould species produce mycotoxins, she said. These toxins may not be visible, and removing mouldy sections does not necessarily make affected food safe to eat.
Omidiran said exposure to some mycotoxins can cause health problems, while long-term exposure to certain toxins is associated with cancer.
Joseph Akinneye, a professor of biology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, said fruits and vegetables that are poorly stored or transported can become contaminated by bacteria, fungi or toxins and cause foodborne illness.
Despite the risks, damaged produce can still find buyers as households and food vendors struggle with rising food costs.
The United Nations Development Programme’s 2026 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index estimates that about 90.07 million Nigerians, or 38.7 per cent of the population, live in multidimensional poverty.
“Lots of low-income Nigerians and food vendors buy these rotten tomatoes because they are cheaper. Most of them believe that once it is boiled, the contamination is gone,” said AfricanFarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer of Agbado Limited.
Mogaji warned that cooking should not be assumed to remove every food-safety risk. He also referred to naturally occurring compounds in some crops, including glycoalkaloids in potatoes and tomatoes, although the specific compounds and risks differ by crop.
“Without an adequate cold chain, our fresh food will continue to turn poisonous,” Mogaji said.
Infrastructure compounds the problem
Nigeria’s cold-chain deficit is compounded by poor rural roads, which can become impassable after heavy rain and cut off farming communities. In markets, tomatoes are often transported in raffia baskets on open trucks.
Nigeria has less than one million cubic metres of cold-storage capacity, according to the 2018 Global Cold Storage Capacity report. Experts cited in the report say the country needs at least 20 million cubic metres, although the basis for that estimate should be established.
“Nigeria needs about 25,000 trucks to start scratching the surface, but we currently have less than 2,000 trucks in the cold-chain industry,” Isong said at the third West Africa Cold Chain Summit and Exhibition.
The report also cites a US Department of Commerce estimate that Nigeria’s core stock infrastructure is equivalent to 30 per cent of GDP, compared with a World Bank benchmark of 70 per cent for middle-income countries. The definition and comparability of these figures should be confirmed before publication.
The way out
Some interventions are under way, but remain small in scale. Lagos State has unveiled an off-grid cooling solution for food and pharmaceutical storage, while businesses including Ecotutu and ColdHubs are investing in off-grid cold-storage facilities at markets.
A 2023 report by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture put Nigeria’s total storage capacity at 225,000 metric tonnes. Experts say this is inadequate for a population of more than 200 million.
“Most food waste is mainly due to poor handling and a lack of storage infrastructure such as cold chain,” said Augustine Okoruwa, regional programme manager at Helen Keller International, at a 2025 cold-chain round-table discussion.
“To address this, there is a need for farmers’ education on effective post-harvest handling of crops and investment in storage facilities such as cold chain,” he said.
Okoruwa called for cold-chain infrastructure to be deployed across the country, noting that some private firms were already investing in the sector but that a substantial gap remained.
Reducing losses will require more than investment in transport. Cold-storage hubs, packhouses and off-grid solar refrigeration near farming communities could help preserve produce before it enters long-distance supply chains.
“It’s about systems that prioritise people and the planet, not just profit,” Mogaji said.
Efforts to obtain a response from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security were unsuccessful.
Until temperature-controlled storage and transport become more widely available, farmers will continue to lose produce in transit, traders will face reduced supplies and consumers will remain exposed to the risks associated with poorly handled food.
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