Kunle DaramolaOn a chilly Wednesday morning in Atakumosa East LGA of Osun state, Isaac Obadare and a member of his staff were working tenaciously towards the production of seven 25kg kegs of palm oil.
According to a PWC report, Nigeria is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world, with less than 2% of total global market production of 74.08 million MT. He listed the problems faced by small scale farmers to include inaccessibility to funding for productive seedlingsRobert also lamented the influx of foreign-produced palm oil in the market, adding that this trend makes business hard for himself and other farmers.
“But then the government gives licence to some importer, they bring in these products to flood the market. And once the market is flooded, then we make almost nothing.VARIETIES OF SEEDLINGSRobert said although there are different kinds of seedlings in the market, the federal government, through the“We have the tenera, dura and. One is 30% kernel, 70% juice, the second one is 50% kernel, 50% juicy fruits, and the last one has 70% kernel and 30% of the juicy part,” he said.
In the same year, the CBN also announced that palm oil, alongside 40 other products, was ineligible for forex through the Nigerian interbank market. This was done to encourage local production and manage foreign reserves. Also, a duty charge of 35% was applied on crude palm oil . “This is because local farmers’ manual harvesting techniques are outdated, which often results in significant wastages during the harvesting process.
Funding
Government should not be the only one funding local business, philanthropists should also step forward.