Venus Processing and Packaging Limited (VPPL), member of Primlaks Group, has launched its Sympli range of individually quick frozen fruits (IQF) and vegetables in Lagos with a view to cutting down wastage resulting from post-harvest storage.
The products, which included Nigerian chillies like ‘atarodo,’ ‘sombo’ and ‘tatase’; local delicacies like ‘yam fries’, ‘yam chunks’ and ‘dodo,’ as well as fruits like pineapple, papaya and mango, were unveiled at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, last Monday.
Anil Hemnani, group managing director, Primlaks Group, said, ‘Venus Packaging and Processing' invested in Nigeria’s first IQF production facility to stop the waste of an estimated 40 percent of what farmers grow in respect of fruits and vegetables because of the absence of proper means of post-harvest storage.
“We introduced the Sympli brand of products to meet the demands of customers for convenience because we observed that the business of living in today’s fast-paced world makes people place a premium on their time. They usually have less time to buy, cut and process their food every day,’’ he said
According to him, IQF had the potentials to solve this problem because it involved quick freezing of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables to lock in all their vitamins, nutrients and natural goodness.
He further expressed delight at the volume of enquiries that had been received from leading local supermarkets and department stores as well as the large population of Africans in the Diaspora, especially in Europe, America and the Middle East.
“Apart from encouraging more people to embrace Nigerian foods, we believe that our efforts, in the long run, will help to create more direct and indirect employment opportunities in the agricultural sector in line with the objectives of the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda,” Hemnani said, adding that “Sympli products will also offer Nigeria a huge revenue earning opportunity.
