P
ProfRem
Guest
Federal government is set to export 72 metric tonnes of yam to Europe and the United States today as part of efforts to diversify the economy.
In a major diversification breakthrough, the minister Of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, announced yesterday that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the exportation of yams to the United States and United Kingdom.
Ogbeh disclosed this to State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Agric Minister noted that his ministry informed council that last week, they completed arrangements for the first formal export of Nigerian yams to the United Kingdom.
He said, “Some people have asked whether by exporting yams we are not going to subject Nigeria to hunger and I had to inform council today that that will not certainly not rise. You will remember that about February or March this year some of you asked the same question: ‘is Nigeria going to face famine?’ and I said it cannot happen. Apart from the crisis in the Northeast, we definitely are not short of food. Although prices are high in some areas, we are not short of food.
“Tomorrow (today), we shall flag off this export in three container loads containing 72 tones of Nigerian yams. Two containers went out in February; one arrived in New York on the 16th of this month. This is important because for those of you who travel and many Nigerians out there, you go to shops where they sell African foods and you never see anything from Nigeria. It is mostly called Ghana yams.
“Now, we account for 61% of the total output of yams in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The rest is shared between some countries in West Africa and the West Indies. For us to go abroad and not find Nigerian yams in the market is an embarrassment”.
Ogheh observed that Ghana is targeting $4 billion from yams in the next three years and if they can do that, Nigerians who are the masters of yam production have no business lagging behind.
He also observed that Nigerians don’t even consume all the yams they produce because most of it is lost to wastage due to poor technologies in preservation.
In a major diversification breakthrough, the minister Of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, announced yesterday that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the exportation of yams to the United States and United Kingdom.
Ogbeh disclosed this to State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Agric Minister noted that his ministry informed council that last week, they completed arrangements for the first formal export of Nigerian yams to the United Kingdom.
He said, “Some people have asked whether by exporting yams we are not going to subject Nigeria to hunger and I had to inform council today that that will not certainly not rise. You will remember that about February or March this year some of you asked the same question: ‘is Nigeria going to face famine?’ and I said it cannot happen. Apart from the crisis in the Northeast, we definitely are not short of food. Although prices are high in some areas, we are not short of food.
“Tomorrow (today), we shall flag off this export in three container loads containing 72 tones of Nigerian yams. Two containers went out in February; one arrived in New York on the 16th of this month. This is important because for those of you who travel and many Nigerians out there, you go to shops where they sell African foods and you never see anything from Nigeria. It is mostly called Ghana yams.
“Now, we account for 61% of the total output of yams in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation. The rest is shared between some countries in West Africa and the West Indies. For us to go abroad and not find Nigerian yams in the market is an embarrassment”.
Ogheh observed that Ghana is targeting $4 billion from yams in the next three years and if they can do that, Nigerians who are the masters of yam production have no business lagging behind.
He also observed that Nigerians don’t even consume all the yams they produce because most of it is lost to wastage due to poor technologies in preservation.