In the Empire of Red Gold, the World Tomato Survey, Jean Baptiste-Malet, a journalist, sets the spotlight on the tomato concentrate market. The document published by Fayard on the cover of JeuneAfrique, goes into the microscope, inside these cans of which African people are fond of, from large supermarkets to grocery stores on the street corners without really worrying about the content, Or at least, the truthfulness of advertising around these products.
In Africa, the big tomato manufacturers sell concentrate cut with a large part of additives, all in a package that does not mention it, writes Jean Baptiste Malet quoted by JeuneAfrique.
According to the journalist's investigation, Europe and China are competing for the African tomato concentrate market. The gargantuas turn out to be Nigeria and Ghana which respectively hold 11% and 14% of imports of tomato concentrate. But it is the Asian giant who won the lion's share with 70% of the exports of this product to the black continent.
Tomatoes made in China for Africans eat everything?
Jean-Baptiste Malet reveals that in China, concentrated tomato barrels are conveyed from the city of Xinjiang, one of the five autonomous regions. These tomato barrels will be "reworked" in Tianjin, where the concentrate is overlapped with soybean fiber, starch, dextrose and dyes before "re-packaging" which will only indicate two ingredients, namely, Tomato and salt. The whole will be transported to Africa.
Togo: A "trash Africa" in miniature?
Jean-Baptiste Malet pushed his investigation to the 2016 edition of the international food fair in Paris, an appointment answered by the large Chinese canneries. The journalist pretended to be a buyer, reports that canned goods destined for Africa bear the inscription "double concentrate of tomatoes", whereas they contain in fact only 45% tomato concentrate, compared with 55% Additives and colorants.
The Indian group Watanmal, Olan, respectively distributors of concentrates Gino and Tasty Tom "have long ordered from the same canning plants in Tianjin," according to Jean-Baptiste Malet. Products of extreme abundance on the Togolese market, and which the populations savor to the detriment of fresh tomato purées made in Togo, which local small producers struggle to ventilate on the market.
One thing is that consumer protection in Africa and in Togo is neglected, but another reality is that the populations themselves are not very interested in what they swallow for days and often, at a price of gold, Enriching an unknown person at the other end of the world to the detriment of the local economy.
To perpetuate diseases beyond their means, either to end in the so-called "hospitals" of their countries, or to languish in poverty, while waiting to develop with foreign aid.
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