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BRACED States Meet with Oil Palm Producers
BRACED States Meet with Oil Palm Producers
24/07/2013 (THISDAY Live) - The BRACED Commission, which is made up of the BRACED states of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, is organising a meeting between the South-south states Commissioners for Agriculture with oil palm producers in the region. The meeting, which will hold at the Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar, Cross River State Wedensday is expected to underscore the region’s determination to revive and scale up oil palm production.
The meeting will discuss the challenges of expanding the cultivation and production of oil palm across the value chain and how the BRACED states could collaborate with the producers, the federal government and the private sector to address these challenges.
This is sequel to the decision of the BRACED states to revive agriculture in the region and make it the mainstay of an envisaged regional economy with the potential to create employment and prosperity for the people of the region.
In this regard, the region identified seven strategic crops, chief of which is oil palm, which it needed to focus on in order to achieve its aspiration of a gradual transition to a broad-based economy, away from an economy solely dependent on oil.
The other crops are cassava, rice, rubber, plantain, banana, cocoa and aqua culture all of which can be robustly cultivated in the region.
The meeting would also consider the feasibility and viability of the six states expanding their palm oil production in order to meet domestic demand and close the gap between Nigeria and major oil palm producers like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Until crude oil was discovered in the country, palm oil used to be the main stay of the economy of Eastern Nigeria which comprised present day South-east and South-south states. Nigeria was also the leading producer of palm oil until it was overtaken by Malaysia and three other countries, leaving Nigeria as the fifth major producer in the world.
Between 1961 and 1965, Nigeria accounted for 43 per cent of world’s annual production of palm oil which was about 1.5 million metric tonnes.
By 2008 the level of production in Nigeria was 25,000MT while world production increased from 629,000MT to 33.33 million metric tonnes within the same period. Today, Nigeria produces about 1.3 million metric tonnes of palm oil and imports 350,000MT annually amounting to $500 million in foreign exchange.
The BRACED states production accounts for 56 per cent of Nigeria’s total production but has the potential to lift that to 80 per cent. Nigeria still had the largest natural and semi natural groves.
The meeting will discuss the challenges of expanding the cultivation and production of oil palm across the value chain and how the BRACED states could collaborate with the producers, the federal government and the private sector to address these challenges.
This is sequel to the decision of the BRACED states to revive agriculture in the region and make it the mainstay of an envisaged regional economy with the potential to create employment and prosperity for the people of the region.
In this regard, the region identified seven strategic crops, chief of which is oil palm, which it needed to focus on in order to achieve its aspiration of a gradual transition to a broad-based economy, away from an economy solely dependent on oil.
The other crops are cassava, rice, rubber, plantain, banana, cocoa and aqua culture all of which can be robustly cultivated in the region.
The meeting would also consider the feasibility and viability of the six states expanding their palm oil production in order to meet domestic demand and close the gap between Nigeria and major oil palm producers like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Until crude oil was discovered in the country, palm oil used to be the main stay of the economy of Eastern Nigeria which comprised present day South-east and South-south states. Nigeria was also the leading producer of palm oil until it was overtaken by Malaysia and three other countries, leaving Nigeria as the fifth major producer in the world.
Between 1961 and 1965, Nigeria accounted for 43 per cent of world’s annual production of palm oil which was about 1.5 million metric tonnes.
By 2008 the level of production in Nigeria was 25,000MT while world production increased from 629,000MT to 33.33 million metric tonnes within the same period. Today, Nigeria produces about 1.3 million metric tonnes of palm oil and imports 350,000MT annually amounting to $500 million in foreign exchange.
The BRACED states production accounts for 56 per cent of Nigeria’s total production but has the potential to lift that to 80 per cent. Nigeria still had the largest natural and semi natural groves.