If you want to start a foodstuff business in Nigeria, it is good to know different kinds of food items that are mostly needed, so as to maximize your sales.
Although the foodstuff business is very profitable in Nigeria, knowing the food items that are in a high demand within your locality will go a long way in ensuring the success of your foodstuff business. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic nation with each ethnic group having particular food they cherish. So, the kind of foodstuff business you can start may be region dependent.
List Of Foodstuff To Sell in Nigeria
Nigeria is a multiethnic nation with over 250 different ethnicities. Each of these ethnic groups have foodstuffs that are peculiar to them, hence giving rise to an endless list of foodstuffs to sell in Nigeria. For clarity purposes, we’ve grouped foodstuff items that are sellable in Nigeria into different categories. They are:
1. Spices
- Ehuru
- Uda
- Uziza
- Cameroon Pepper
- Salt
- Yellow pepper (Nsukka Pepper)
- Seasoning cubes
- Pepper Soup Spice
- Jollof mix Spice
- Suya Spice (Yaji)
- Banga Spice
2. Swallow
- Pounded Yam
- Plantain fufu
- Wheat
- Tuwo
- Semo
- Garri for Eba (Yellow or white)
- Amala – Yam Flour
- Cassava – Fufu (Akpu)
3. Soup
- Periwinkles
- Dried Prawn
- Snail (frozen or fresh)
- Locust beans ( Iru)
- Ogiri (Castor beans)
- Ugba (for African Salad or soup)
- Egusi (Melon Seed)
- Ogbono (Seed or powder)
- Stockfish (Head or full body)
- Dried fish (Asa, Azu okpor, Mangala)
- Cocoyam (Ede – soup thickener), Ofor (Soup thickener), Or Achi (Soup thickener)
- Crayfish (dry or fresh)
4. Vegetables
- Fresh Tomatoes
- Fresh Pepper – Ata rodo
- Okra (fresh or dry Okro)
- Scent Leaves
- Okazi leaves
- Efo leaves
- Oha leaves
- Uziza leaves
- Bitter leaves
- Utazi Leaves
- Zobo Leave
- Ugu leaves (fluted pumpkins)
- Waterleaves
- Ewedu leaves
- Onions
5. Cooking Oil
- Palm oil
- Groundnut oil
- Soya bean oil
- Vegetable oil
- coconut oil
6. Canned
- Baked Beans
- Sardine
- Tomato paste
- Peas (Green Peas)
- Sauce
7. Others
- Yam
- Plantain
- Abacha (Cassava flask)
- Ukwa (Breadfruit)
- Okpa Seed
- Black Beans (Akidi)
- Guinea corn
- Wheat
- Millet
- Sweet Potatoes
- Beans
- Rice
- Indomie
- Spaghetti
- Macaroni pasta
- Maize (Corn)
Factors to Consider When Choosing Foodstuff to Sell in Nigeria
While the foodstuff business is very lucrative in Nigeria, it is important to consider some factors before choosing the kinds of foodstuff you want to start selling. The factors are:
- What foodstuff is scarce in your area but cherished by people?
- What are the foodstuffs that people in your area demand most?
- What foodstuff do people use daily within your vicinity?
- What are the available foodstuff suppliers of the food items you want to start selling?
- Can your start-up capital be enough for the particular foodstuff you want to start selling.
How To Start A Foodstuff Business In Nigeria
Now that you’ve known that there are numerous foodstuff businesses that you can start in Nigeria. Let’s briefly look at the procedures involved in starting a foodstuff business. The steps are outlined below:
1. Conduct Extensive Market Research/Survey
Market research is the first thing to do when you want to start a foodstuff business. This market survey will help you to understand how the business works in your vicinity. During market research, you will be able to find different foodstuffs that are in a high demand in your area. For instance, if you’re resident in the southwestern part of Nigeria, selling amala will be profitable. But if you reside in the eastern part, amala business may not thrive because most people in that region don’t know much about amala.
During the market research, you should be able to know the rules that govern foodstuff business within your locality. To get in-depth knowledge during market surveys, you can meet existing foodstuff sellers within your area and inquire from them of the best foodstuff items that people sought after most. You can always sample customers’ opinions to ascertain their shopping experience so that you can deliver excellent service to them to outsmart your competitors. Things to do during market research:
- Find out the products that sell best in your area.
- Ensure that you ascertain the price range of the foodstuff you want to start selling.
- You should be able to identify your competitors’ weaknesses so that you can improve on them.
- You should also find out different policies that are regulating foodstuff business in your area.
2. Source Fund For Your Foodstuff Business
After conducting the market research and finding out the price range of different foodstuffs, the next thing is to get the start-up capital. The startup capital for a foodstuff business is not fixed, hence the amount of money that you will use to start a foodstuff business in Nigeria is totally dependent on your financial capability. But the bottom line here is that you can start with a small amount of money and scale up the business as the profit increases. The main thing is to get started. You can source funds for your foodstuff business via the following means:
- Personal savings.
- Family financial support.
- Borrowing from a financial institution.
3. Rent a Shop in a Strategic Location
To achieve success in your foodstuff business, it is always important to rent a shop in a strategic and busy environment where there is enough human and vehicular movement.
If possible, rent your shop in a foodstuff cluster market that is already established where people can go and buy any foodstuff they want. This will help you to make enough sales because people will definitely check in such markets when they need foodstuff items.
Things to consider when renting a foodstuff shop:
- Ensure that the shop has enough space to accommodate varieties of food items.
- You should also ensure that the store is located in a busy area.
- Ensure that the shop is well illuminated so that people will see your foodstuff products.
- Rent an affordable shop.
4. Employ The Services Of Foodstuff Supplier
After renting the shop, the next thing is to stock your shop with varieties of foodstuff depending on what you want to sell. You can engage the services of wholesalers (suppliers) so that they will supply you with foodstuffs at a cheaper price. If the foodstuff you want to sell is more of farm produce, you can travel to distant villages where they are produced and buy from the local farmers at cheap price, and then resell it at higher price to make more profit.
When stocking your shop, try to get prices from different suppliers and compare the prices to enable you to buy at a cheaper price which will definitely increase your profit.
5. Stock Your Shop With Foodstuff
When stocking your foodstuff shop, ensure that you utilize the shelving properly. Group similar foodstuff items into the same section so that customers can have a seamless shopping experience.
During stocking, try to create enough space where customers can move easily to pick their desired products. You should also try labeling each section in your shop for easy identification. Meanwhile, if you sell perishable foodstuff products, keep them in the refrigerated section so that it won’t spoil easily. Finally, make provision for inventory management where the first-in-first-out principle will be implemented so that your items won’t get expired.
6. Start Selling Your Foodstuff
Finally, you can start selling your food items. It is important to note that at the beginning of your business, you may not sell many products as you may expect, but with time, your sales are definitely going to increase. At a start, your interest should be to build loyal customers and not to make excess profit, because once you build customers, you can start making profit from their regular purchases.
To build loyal customers, you’ll need to establish good relationships with them by offering good customer services like discounted prices for loyal customers. You can also do promo to attract more buyers. You should also ask customers for feedback to enable you to improve on your service delivery. If you have some of your customers’ contact, you can reach out to them once in a while to check on them.
Is Foodstuff Business Profitable?
Yes, the foodstuff business is very profitable in Nigeria. It is one of the daily income businesses that can put good food on your table. To achieve success in foodstuff, you need to conduct a proper survey and ascertain the foodstuffs that are highly demanded in your area and start selling. Proper inventory management and good customer rapport can go a long way in boosting your foodstuff business.
What is the Start Up Capital for Foodstuff Business in Nigeria?
There is no fixed startup capital for foodstuff business in Nigeria. You can start with as low as N100,000 and as much as millions of naira, depending on your financial capacity. However, starting with a small start up capital doesn’t mean you won’t make it, all you need to do is to be strategic and scale up your foodstuff business to a large scale business.
