A SEEMINGLY small, but very lucrative business in Nigeria today is fruit selling — packaging and reselling them. Apart from the readily available market, it is very easy to set up. It simply requires an initial start-up capital, as little as N10, 000 to N150, 000 or more depending on location and how one wants to operate it.

  For its smallness, sellers are often found at street corners while some put theirs in carts and push from street to street. Yet, there are some entrepreneurs that have moved the trade a bit higher, selling fruits in groceries.

   One unique thing about fruit selling is that the business can be run from one’s home on full time or on part-time basis depending on choice and clients. Operating on full time entails choosing to be stationary at a location for buyers to come to you, while the itinerant sellers move from place to place seeking for buyers. Operating at this level, sellers target the highbrow areas, where people appreciate fruits. 

  On like before, where fruits selling were solely left with the itinerant sellers, grocery stores are spring up in their numbers in different parts of the country, especially in highbrow areas of most big cities. 

   With advancement in technology, which has made mobility and commerce easier, fruits limited to certain locations and geography could now be sold in any locality. All that is required is for the small-scale traders or middle men to get to the sources of supply and buy, for onward distribution to the final consumers, which may be schools, restaurants, hotels, individuals and others. 

  Before now, fruits such as apple, plum, fig, blueberry, kiwi, apricot and others were not known to be available in the Nigerian market and even, when available were usually found in groceries run by foreigners, but all that have changed and we can get any fruit of our choice at our doorsteps.

   Fruit selling is a business that rakes in several millions of Naira to the farmer, sellers and organisations in the chain of distribution.

  Though, the lack of data and statistics have made it impossible for the contribution of this produce to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to the Gross National Product (GDP) to be quantified, it is assumed that fruits farming and selling has contributed immensely to job creation and the GNP in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) through tax and rates collected from the sellers for the spaces used and other organisations in the distribution chain. 

  According the Director General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Abuja, Dr. Husseni Doko Ibrahim, fruit sellers that employed better packaging method like canning and turning fruits to juice in 2014 generated about 43 per cent to the total revenue accrue from the processing of agricultural produce in the country. 

   But for the small, medium and grocery stores, the story has not changed, because at their micro-levels, they are contributing to the wellbeing of the buyers, who on health grounds are consuming more of fruits and as well to the local and state governments revenues, apart from creating jobs for other organisations in the chain distribution of goods and services.

   Though most fruits are seasonal, they could always be preserved till another fruit season.

  According to Madam Ayinke, fruit selling is a big business; you need to know where to source them and how to preserve them to make it in the business. It is business that could be started small based on your capital.

  Advising anybody coming into the business, she said, “aside from getting a good selling location, you need a good refrigerator and has to know how to care for the fruits before putting them in the fridge. Some do not need refridgation, but just have to be put in place, where there are plenty of air.” 

   Speaking on the market, she revealed:“ The market is wide, all I need to do is to go to the depot, where the farmers bring them from the rural areas to Lagos. We get the fruits cheaper, clean them up and package for either the grocery stores or the open markets.

 “I have been in this business for the past 15 years, I do not regret entering the business, because it has paid my bills and sustained my family. I make enough money and have to get ladies to sell for me at different locations” she noted.

     Explaining the category of people that buy from her, Ayinke said: “I package my fruits in a nylon wraps for buyers to pick. Though, I sell variety of fruits, I must say our local fruits give me more money because I go to the markets where middlemen from the grassroots bring them to Lagos; so aside from getting them cheaper I get good ones,” she revealed.

  Corroborating the story, Bose said Nigerians are getting used to taking fruits mostly on health grounds and this is boosting our purse.

 “Some of us have even devise a means of selling the fruits in smaller packages for those that cannot buy a whole stalk. This small packaging rakes in more money, though difficult putting together,” she said.

  Revealing how he gets the supply of the carrots and other fruits, he sells, Musa said he gets his supply from local carrot farmers in Lagos and, sometimes, from suppliers who bring them from Benue State. According to him fruits are important part of a healthy diet. They are naturally low in calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol. They keep the body healthy and could help lower the risk of many illnesses like stroke, heart attack, certain cancers, kidney stones and bone loss. These are some of the illnesses Nigerians may not want to be associated with and as such depend on fruits to prevent them.

   “So, the market is huge and I must say I have people that come regularly for supply and there is no dull moments, especially during fasting periods, where I make between N250, 000 to N300,000 within three months.

   Recounting how he started, he said: “I started selling fruits 10 years ago with a cart, but today, I do not see any business better than it. As you can see that I have move from that level to a stall. I pay middlemen that go to the farmers directly; so I buy right from the source,” he said.

    Operating a grocery store in GRA, Ikeja, Nike noted that the location of her business determines the peculiarity of fruits she sells. Nike, who sells more of foreign fruits than the local revealed that the business, though tied to the forces of demand and supply of dollar has the prospect of a quick turnover.

   “We import fruits from different countries across the globe, package and sell to Nigerians. The business is lucrative and chances are if there are no damages, you have a quick turnover and regularly smile to the bank.

  “ The market is huge, as you can see in the chain of distribution right from the people that bring the foil, nylon wrappers to the crates and cartons used for the package. It is a business Nigerians are yet to properly go into.