The misnomer of palm oil importation and food inflation

The report that Nigeria is spending $600 million yearly to import palm oil should be disheartening to the generality of citizens, who knew the country to be foremost globally in the production and export of the product.

Although that was about 40 years ago, there is no credible explanation for the massive lapse that has occurred during the period; a development that is compounding food insecurity and hyper-inflation prevalent in the land today.

How a country with so much potential can allow such huge slip is a matter that successive governments over the past 40 years should be made to answer. And for the present government that promised to stem the tide of importation by making agriculture and food sufficiency one of its cardinal priorities, now is the time to demonstrate practically that it will honour its promise in words and in deed.   
 
Amidst high cost of food items and unbridled importation, the National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria (NPPAN) through its National President, Alphonsus Inyang, recently lamented in an interview that Nigeria spends $600 million on palm oil importation yearly. Importation of palm oil, along with increase in the prices of food items, reflects a lack of policy-driven commitment to agriculture and food production at all levels of governments. It is highly embarrassing and unhealthy for national development that Nigeria, which was self-sufficient in palm oil produce in the time past, now spends such amount to import same. Nigeria was number one in palm oil production and exportation globally in the 1960s, controlling over 60 per cent of world palm oil produce and trade.
 

Today, over 50 per cent of palm oil the nation consumes is imported, showcasing the country as the largest consumer of the product in Africa. With only 1.4 million metric tonnes yearly, Nigeria now occupies the fifth position among the league of palm oil producing countries after Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Colombia; while it consumes three million metric tonnes yearly. Indonesia produces 50 million metric tonnes, Malaysia second with 19 million metric tonnes, Thailand 3.28 million, while Colombia is 1.9 million metric tonnes.
 
Yet, Nigeria is abundantly blessed with adequate all-year round sunlight, and the country’s climate conditions consisting of the dry and rainy seasons are well suited for agriculture. With several river systems and watercourses, there is constant irrigation of farmlands. There is a large population the nation can utilise, a sizeable percentage of which consists of young, able-bodied persons who can be motivated to direct their energies to agriculture. All the conditions for a potential agricultural revolution thus exist locally. What is lacking lamentably is a clear vision and commitment on the part of policy makers and administrators. Unless the country addresses this deficiency, it may suffer greater loss in the palm oil industry.
 
For a country suffering from foreign exchange deficit and a struggling economy, the sum of $600 million is huge. If properly spent, it can make a huge difference in the lot of many Nigerians; and if saved, it can help stabilise the local currency against the dollar. It should therefore be worrisome to agricultural authorities in the country that the amount is being lost. It certainly would not be out of place if Nigeria is generating that amount yearly from the exportation of palm oil, rather than the other way round.
 
So far, all indications on escalation of food prices point to security of lives and property across the country. This was buttressed lately by the chairman, Mile 12 International Market in Lagos, Shehu Usman Jubrin, who said the recent high cost of tomato, pepper, and other perishable items was traceable to insecurity and other factors. He lamented that 99 per cent of the people in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps are farmers. They don’t do anything other than farming, both male and female, and the few people on the farm are doing so with fear, and are just a few out of over 5000 farmers now displaced in IDP camps.              
 

There is no alternative to first dealing with the issue of security in order to ensure increase in production of food items. The sorry fate of palm oil is applicable to other agricultural products. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) indicates that Nigeria’s composite consumer price index is rising rapidly on a year-on-year basis. In the past one month, it increased to 733.4 per cent in May 2024 from 718 per cent in April 2024. The staple food items affected by this spiral are many. They include garri, tomatoes, beans, rice, yam, pepper, imported fish among others. According to experts, the rise in prices of key food items is mostly caused by insecurity, high cost of transportation of products, climate change and the instability of the Naira exchange rate. No doubt, law and order provide the framework for stability and development, but the current insecurity across the country has made foodstuff prices to skyrocket, driving the average family below the poverty line.
  
A radical overhaul of Nigeria’s agricultural management system is required. It will help to open up vast opportunities for transforming the economy of the country. The ministry of Agriculture and Food Security should support NIPPAN members with seedlings; while the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory should be gingered to direct more energy and funds to agricultural production, so that Nigerians can conveniently consume what they produce.