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..As ValueJet’s refusal to carry fruits leave farmers stranded
By Chinelo Obogo
Nigeria’s strawberry industry is facing a distribution crisis as the collapse of air cargo services out of Jos, the Plateau State capital is threatening to cripple the entire value chain.
The founder and Chief Operating Officer of Limlim Foods Production Company, Adeola Balogun, raised the alarm on her Facebook page, warning that the country has entered its main strawberry season (November to February) with no way to move berries out of Jos.
Balogun said the situation could devastate farmers, writing, “Nigeria built the strawberry value chain on a runway. The plane left, now the harvest has nowhere to go.” She said that for years, Arik Air served as the only reliable lifeline for Jos strawberry farmers and distributors and that despite exorbitant costs; they depended on the airline to ensure fresh berries reached markets across the country in good condition.
She said however that the supply chain collapsed overnight when Arik Air suspended its Jos operations in October 2025 and that the situation worsened as ValueJet, now the only commercial carrier flying out of Jos, refused to carry strawberries as cargo.
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“In our own operations, we paid more per kilogram in air cargo than we paid farmers per kilogram of produce. Logistics cost more than the fruit, and we still paid for it, because at least the berries arrived fresh and wholesome across the country. Today, Nigeria has strawberries, but Nigeria cannot move strawberries,” Balogun stated.
The crisis, she said, has left farmers, processors, and distributors stranded at the peak of harvest season, with no alternative to air transport. Road transportation, which she said some might consider an option, is not practical for the very perishable fruit. She said fresh strawberries survive only one to four days at room temperature, a window which is too narrow for road transport from Jos to major Nigerian cities. The fragile nature of the berries, combined with poor road conditions and long travel times, makes road transportation difficult, she explained.
She wrote: “Fresh strawberries survive 1-4 days at room temperature. That is the entire window. Road is not a solution today. It’s a controlled disaster. On our last attempt by road, we used Styrofoam boxes (additional cost), packed ice for 48 hours, turned prayer warrior against checkpoint delays and rough roads, but still lost 20-30% to sweating fruit, broken boxes, heat pockets and delays. You can’t get any refund, just absorb the losses and move on.
“Peak harvest is here (15-30 tons/hectare), but farmers are debating whether picking their crop is the bigger loss. This is what a system failure sounds like, not some headlines or reports. And this is not only a cold chain issue, the flaw runs deeper. Nigeria built production without securing logistics. Food security is logistics security. We’re not losing strawberries because farmers don’t know how to grow them, we’re losing them because a berry’s entire value chain depended on a plane we didn’t control.
“If Plateau produces 700 tons this season and we lose 50% due to lack of movement, 350 tons will rot in 120 days. By April, Lagos will import strawberries, puree and concentrate while fresh berries rot in Jos. This season will decide whether Nigeria has a strawberry industry or just a strawberry harvest. But this is the conversation Nigeria avoids, we celebrate yields without asking how food moves across the value chain, we talk about food security while losing food to logistics, not production, we push “value addition” while value dies at the farm gate, long before processing ever begins.”
