Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Chief Audu Ogbe has said that Nigeria exported N30 billion worth of agricultural products in the first three months of 2017. Ogbe said this while briefing the National Economic council. The Minister listed exportable agro commodities to include; coffee, cashew nuts, rubber, kolanuts, palm kennel, coconuts, cotton, “ogbonno”, ginger, timber, shrimps among others. He told the Council that agricultural export had increased by 82 per cent in the first quarters of 2017, while export earnings from agric goods stood at N30.0 billion for the same period.
The Minister gave the breakdown of the export earnings from various crops saying that Sesame seeds’ export of N3.7 billion was to Turkey; N1.6 billion to China; and N1.6 billion to India. He said that in the case of Soya beans N3.4 billion twas exported to Russia; and N1.2 billion to Greece. According to him Frozen shrimp export of N2.2billions was to the Netherlands. Cashew nuts he said N1.8billion was exported to Vietnam while Crude palm kernel oil worth N1.2 billion was exported to the Netherlands. The total value of agricultural goods’ trade in the second quarter of 2017 was N261.92 billion representing 4.60 per cent of total trade in the period (1.03% lower than N30.02 billion in Q1) Agriculture exports was 0.96 per cent of total exports in the second quarter of 2017
According to him the destination of Agriculture exports in the second quarter of 2017 were Asia (66.38%); Europe (24.98%); Americas 4.37%; Africa 3.88%; and the Oceanic 0.39%. Agriculture exports during the period were driven by the export of Cashew nuts worth N13.5billion or 45.4 per cent of the total agriculture exports and 1.37 per cent of total exports. Cashew nuts export to Vietnam was N12.16 billion; N1.4billion to India and N6.34 million to Kazakhstan. Sesame seed exports in was N7.0 billion or 23.6 per cent of total agriculture exports. Sesame seeds export to Japan was N1.3 billion; India N0.9 billion; Turkey N0.9 billion; South Korea N0.8billion; and China N0.6 billion. exports: Netherlands N1.5 billion; Belgium N0.67 billion; United States N0.22 billion; France N0.17 billion; and Spain N87 million.
Exports of soya bean flour and meals were N2.3 billion (7.8% of agricultural exports): N2.1 billion to Spain; N116.6 million to Ghana; N72.9 million to Senegal; N18.1million to Mauritania; and N2.0million to Germany. Other agricultural exports: Ginger N663.7 million; flowers N568.5 million; Peanut kernels and other groundnuts N481.3 million; and Milk and cream powder N282.4 million the minister said
