The Federal Government has advised by the European Union (EU) to increase export of agricultural produces like rubber, cocoa and palm oil to the EU countries.
The advice was given by the Head of EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Michel Arrion at a press conference to commemorate the 40 years of EU-Nigeria partnership in Abuja on Wednesday. Arrion said there were potential exports, which Nigeria could develop in commercial quantities for export, lamenting that such exports to the EU were currently in low quantities.
According to him, “There are potential exports like rubber for instance for tiles that you could certainly develop. We will be delighted to import and to buy more rubber from Nigeria. The problem is that the production is very small. We will be delighted to buy more cocoa from Nigeria. We are buying most of our cocoa from Ivory Coast and Ghana, while not from Nigeria?” he asked.
He expressed the view that Nigeria should be thinking of what it can produce in addition to its own consumption as he added that Nigeria should strive to meet its local demands before thinking of exporting, stressing further that Nigeria has a lot of possibilities in agricultural products but that it would take several years to really have an export-oriented commercial farming policy.
Arrion said: “Nigeria has to be competitive, I mentioned palm oil; I see a potential market for palm oil exportation from Nigeria to EU if the prices are competitive. Today, they are not. Malaysia for instance, offers more competitive price, so Nigeria has also to work on the competitiveness of the country’s products.
He is of the view that there were several factors that contributed to competitiveness which included the costs of production, labour, land and energy, among others. “When your refineries of palm oil have to produce their own energy instead of being connected to the grid, you are less competitive than others”, he said adding that the competitiveness of Nigeria products is also being affected because the rate of exchange of naira exchange rate.
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