05/09/2012 (AllAfrica.com) - The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has rejected proposals for his ministry to import crude palm oil into the country.

Adesina made the position known in Abuja during the signing of cooperation agreement between the Ministry and 18 participating oil palm estates in the 2012 Nursery Field Plantation Activity.

He warned that the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme's (ETLS') Rule of Country of Origin provision should not be exploited to bring in crude palm oil at an unauthorised and ridiculously low price that discourages local investment.

"I want to be very clear on this: we will not allow imports of cheap CPO that will undermine our palm oil transformation agenda as a country."

Adesina lamented that in the late 60s, Nigeria was the leading producer and exporter of oil palm produce and that for most part of this period, the largest world producer.

"Nigeria accounted for 27 per cent of the global market of palm oil in 1961. Our production declined from 167,000 metric tons in 1961 to 25,000 metric tons by 2008. In the same period global production of palm oil expanded from 629,000 metric tons in 1961 to 33.3 million metric tons.

The situation changed following the aberration caused by the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in the early 70s"

The minister also informed that his ministry is already engaging all stakeholders in this regard to ensure their understanding towards supporting the establishment of local plantations, local production and processing.

He remarked that the oil palm industry has a lot of potentials not only for making profit and creating wealth but also providing employment. "Some oil palm companies, which are quoted in the stock exchange, are now the best performing stocks on the exchange. We want them to continue to do well. And in support of this, we are doing everything possible to promote the enabling environment that will ensure that investments in the oil palm are sustainable and that the market remains competitive for all local investors."

Recalling that Malaysia, which today is the second largest producer after Indonesia, collected its first improved nuts from Nigeria, the minister said: "Today Malaysia earns $18 billion per year from palm oil production. If Nigeria had held its share of palm oil production in 1960s, today it would be earning $8 billion per year from palm oil production. And today, Nigeria produces only 1.3 million metric tons of vegetable oil and imports over 350,000 metric tons of vegetable oil annually, expending an average of the naira equivalent of USD 500 million in foreign exchange. This situation is not acceptable."

As a first step, Adesina told the gathering, "4 million nuts have already been secured from the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) out of which 1,395,000 nuts capable of establishing 9,300 hectares are being made available to 18 estates at an average of 75,000-82,500 nuts in the first instance, to expand their holdings by between 500 and 550 hectares each while the balance of 2,605,000 nuts capable of planting 17,366 hectares will be raised by accredited out growers for distribution to farmers under the consolidated growth enhancement support for the oil palm value chain in 2013."

Under the Palm Oil Estate Scheme, participating estates span across 11 states namely: Kogi, Edo, Ondo, Delta, Cross River, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Abia, Osun and Enugu. Each of the estates in this scheme has not less than 500 hectares of land concession to plant in 2013.

Adesina asserted that it was economically suicidal for Nigeria to throw open its ports to cheap import of crude palm oil noting that "those clamouring and making clandestine moves to reduce the tariff on crude palm oil from 35 to 5 per cent should know that this government will not allow such to happen. We cannot mortgage the future of Nigerian farmers. Farmers and oil palm estate owners are now expanding cultivated area under oil palm.

"They are planting new high yielding varieties with expectations they will find markets. If we allow crude palm oil from Malaysia to flood our markets, we will be dashing the hopes of these farmers and further sabotage the Nigerian economy.

"We are implementing an aggressive plan under the oil palm transformation agenda and we will reach 250,000 hectares of additional new plantings by 2015. We should be talking of how to become a major palm oil exporting country not to keep the shameful pattern of importing what we produce and can produce in abundance. The so-called backward integration policy has failed for rice, palm oil, cotton and sugar and has led to the current high level of imports, which we are determined to reverse. I will never support it. I am not Minister of Food Importation," he said.