The Chairman, First African Coconut company Limited, John-Bede Anthonio, has urged farmers, investors and various governments to deepen coconut production and value chain to make the country richer by not less than N20 billion yearly through exports.
His words: “To generate N20 billion annually from coconut, we need to develop plantations. Coconut will grow in 20 states of the Nigeria. Private sector and government will have to develop 100,000 hectares of coconut plantation in 20 states.”
For him, the coconut industry is a revenue spinner with has huge potential for growth, despite the challenges facing it.
To get more people to explore opportunities in the industry, he urged that state governments inculcate agriculture in primary school and tertiary institutions. He added that that there should be tax review on agriculture development.
The Director-General, Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, has also been advocating increased cultivation and value addition to coconuts for agro-economic and social development.
This follows the forecast that the global coconut by-product market size was expected to reach $95.64 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.
According to him, the main constraint of the coconut sub-sector is low production attributable to low productivity and low expansion and rehabilitation of the area under coconut production.
He identified the key factors responsible for the low productivity of this crop to include poor coconut husbandry practices, the effect of drought stress, poor soil fertility, incidence and severity of pests and diseases estimated to have killed more than eight million palms.
In 2019, more than 80 per cent of the national requirement was met through importation and the country expended $219,446.53 and $293,214.22 on this in 2019 and 2018.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the country ranks 19th position in global coconut production.
According to the market analysis by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the industrial consumption of coconut oil in the cosmetic and skincare industry increased from 1.51 million metric tonnes in 2018 to 1.79 million metric tons in 2019.