Fashola to commission Candel's agrochemical plant
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola will tomorrow commissioned Candel Company Limited's integrated manufacturing facility for crop protection chemicals and foliar fertilizers at the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos. Candel Company Limited, which is an agricultural inputs development and distribution company, said that the multi-billion naira project, which is in its first phase, when completed will deliver a facility with capacity for 80 million litres of formulated products per annum.
It will enable Candel to deliver solutions most suited to Nigeria's tropical climate and peculiar farming systems. There is currently no local production of crop protection agrochemicals in Nigeria with over $400 million in foreign exchange expended annually to import them.
Crop protection chemicals protect crops from weeds, pests and diseases when in the field, during transportation and in the store and help the quest for increased crop yields and better preservation by Nigerian farmers.
Candel's factory is configured to produce products specially targeted at small scale farmers as well as customized formulations with different surfactant levels for large scale farmers.
The facility has five process plants for soluble liquids (SL), emulsifiable concentrates (EC) and suspension concentrates (SC) of products from diverse chemical families. It has sufficient capacity to supply Candel's own distribution network in Nigeria and Ghana with enough spare capacity for third parties in Nigeria and overseas.
The target of the international market influenced its location at the Lekki Free Zone. Construction of the production facility began in early 2014 after an extensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) exercise under the full supervision and guidance of the Federal and Lagos State ministries of environment.
Charles Anudu, the chairman of the Candel Company, underlined the company's innovative and entrepreneurial spirit as well as the many years of experience in the field of crop protection and nutrition.