A renowned Professor of the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Kehinde Owolarafe yesterday hinted that Nigeria is losing N94 billion to palm oil importation annually.
The don dropped the hint while speaking at a one-day sensitisation workshop with the theme: “Promoting Palm Oil Value Chain Via Standardisation”, organised by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON)
for palm producers, processors, distributors, marketers, retailers and users, yesterday in Osogbo.
He however expressed sadness that the country which occupied the premier position in the past has now dropped to the fifth position and is struggling to reach two million tonnes, reports Nigerian Tribune.
According to him, “between 1920 and 1960, Nigeria was the leading producer and exporter of palm oil but sadly, Indonesia and Malaysia now lead in the production of palm oil in the whole world”.
“Though there has been an increase in palm production in the last few years, Nigeria at present imports palm oil to the tune of about one million metric tonnes to supplement the local production in order to meet the high demand.
He, however said, there is an urgent need to improve the quality and quantity of palm oil production in the country to meet the international standards for exportation.
While warning producers and marketers of palm oil against adulteration, the academia maintained that this can be injurious to consumers’ health and that all hands must be put together to ensure high-quality oil is being produced.
“The same climate we have is what Malaysia and Indonesia have and they are doing well. We need to restructure the palm oil industry in Nigeria”, he said.
In his own contribution at the event,the Director General, Dr Ifeanyi Chukwunonso Okeke identified Palm tree as an important crop whose products are used for food and non-food purposes and accounts for an annual average of 70% of the Nigerian oil market.
Represented by the South West Zonal Coordinator, Mrs Tailatu Kudi Ethan, he said, Nigeria has not been able to compete well with other palm oil producing countries of the world .
She remarked also that there has been continuation in importation of high quality oil by the local industries because local process have not been able to produce enough to meet their demand.
The Director General therefore called for the adoption of technologies and hygiene in the production and storage of palm oil so that poison, instead of food, is not distributed to would-be consumers.
“The palm oil industry has the prospects of providing employment for millions of unskilled and semi-skilled people.”
“As demonstrated in other economies, with proper focus on production of commodities of large scale commercial values, improvement in the production of palm oil can effectively mitigate the poverty level in Nigeria,” he concluded.
