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Abdulazeez Abubakar
1 month ago
Overview
Oil palm growers to replant 1.5m hectares on rising appetite
Oil palm growers are planning to replant 1.5 million hectares of land over the next five years across the 27 oil palm producing states in Nigeria.
This is targeted at leveraging the rising local and global palm oil demand and driving foreign exchange earnings through export.
The initiative, developed by the Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria (OPGAN), is contained in the Oil Palm Development Strategy for Nigeria 2024 – 2029.
The plan also aims to propel Nigeria’s palm oil industry from its current fifth position to third in global palm oil output.
It equally targets revitalising and elevating Nigeria’s palm oil industry to drive job creation and economic growth.
Joe Onyiuke, president, Oil Palm Growers Association of Nigeria, told BusinessDay in Abuja that this is the first time a commodity organisation is formulating a comprehensive strategic plan tailored to a subsector’s unique needs and aspirations.
“In the annals of Nigeria’s agricultural landscape, the oil palm industry stands as a cornerstone of economic prosperity and agricultural advancement. Yet, amidst its significant contributions, there exists a palpable gap in the strategic framework for its sustainable development,” he said.
He noted that the group has embarked on a journey to bridge the palm oil gap and propel the industry into a new era of growth and resilience.
Onyiuke noted that the strategy “delineates the challenges that have impeded our progress, from inefficient land use practices to market volatility, and presents actionable recommendations and modalities to surmount them.”
Nigeria was a lead exporter of crude palm oil in the 1960s. It is currently the largest consumer of palm oil in Africa, according to the World Bank. While it consumed three million metric tons (MT) of fats and oil in 2018, its output stood at 1.02m MT, translating to a gap of 1.92 million MT.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), says that oil palm production in Nigeria reached 1.4 million metric tonnes (MT) in 2022, a nine percent rise from 2020/21 when production stood at 1.28 million MT. The local demand is estimated at over three million tons.
https://businessday.ng/news/article/oil-palm-growers-to-replant-1-5m-hectares-on-rising-appetite/
