The President of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, inaugurated a new tomato processing plant in Yako, in the country’s northern region, on Monday.
According to reports, the Société Faso Tomates (SOFATO) facility has a production capacity of 100 tonnes per day. It marks the country’s second major tomato processing plant in less than a month.
The inauguration comes just 16 days after the Burkinabe Tomato Company (SOBTO) opening in Bobo-Dioulasso.
The new plant is in Pougyango, a village in the Gomponsom commune, just 10 kilometres from one of Burkina Faso’s largest dams. This location was selected to ensure reliable access to water for tomato cultivation and processing.
Built at a cost of over 5 billion FCFA, the plant was funded through a combination of public and private sources, including 1 billion FCFA from the Economic Fund for Economic and Social Development (FONEDES) and nearly 400 million FCFA from the Agency for the Promotion of Community Entrepreneurship. The remaining funds were raised through popular shareholding.
Aziz Nignan, chairman of the board of directors of the cooperative society SCOOP-CA, described SOFATO as a symbol of national resilience, projecting it to generate 7 billion FCFA in revenue in its first year. The facility has created 100 direct jobs and more than 1,500 indirect jobs, with these numbers expected to rise as operations expand.
The plant’s proximity to tomato-growing areas, where 70 per cent of the required raw materials are sourced within a 200-kilometer radius, is expected to streamline supply chains and enhance productivity.
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