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HISTORY OF SORGHUM MALTING IN NIGERIA
Brewery industries in Nigeria were importing barley and barley malts at cost of huge foreign exchange. Research carried out by food scientist in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya etc. proved that sorghum can be good and effective replacement for barley. Government of Nigeria banned of importation of barley and barley malts in 1988 to save foreign exchange. This single act of sheer patriotism provided the needed impetus for development of sorghum production and malting in Nigeria. Sorghum, abundantly grown over a wide semiarid region of Nigeria, surpasses all other cereals. Industrial use of sorghum is Less than 5 % of annual production.
Following the ban on importation of barley and barley malt, improvised sorghum malting plants sprang up to meet the demand for breweries mainly. Most of them do not have the equipments, facilities and infrastructure, to meet FDA processing / sanitary requirements, to process raw sorghum into food products, i.e malts.
Visionary entrepreneur, Mr. A.K. Mirchandani envisaged the huge potential for malting industry in Nigeria and the economic development cycle it can trigger from augmenting national cereal output, to revamping rural economy, to job creation and to saving of foreign exchange. He planned establishing a modern malting plant to produce malted sorghum and malt derivatives like malt extract, malt syrup, glucose etc to meet the requirement of not only of breweries but also other multinational companies engaged in production of energy foods and drinks, weaning formulae, confectioneries, pharmaceuticals etc.
The fruits of his vision is Food, Agro & Allied Industries Limited, a modern 100 ton per day malting plant.
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