Sunflower: Nigeria has USD3.5B to gain in export

The President, National Sunflower Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NSUNGPMAN) Alhaji Jibril Bukar has said that sunflower seed and other processed derivatives  have potentials to generate a total of $3.5 billion at the breakdown of USD1.5 and USD2 billion respectively if all logistics is properly put in place. Alhaji Jibril Bukar stated this in a remark made at stakeholders round table meeting held recently at the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC) in Abuja.

 

Alhaji Bukar pointed that sunflower being highly in great consumable demand both locally and internationally also has a great potential of huge foreign earnings in seeds and other processed derivatives in the total of 3.5 billion dollar, adding that ‘’the country can earn about USD1.5 billion from export of sunflower seeds and another USD2 billion from export of other processed sunflower products such as cosmetic, pharmaceuticals, oil and other food products’’

 

He argued that Nigeria in view of constant upward trend of the market for the produce in the global market since 2020 has not been able to properly harness this potential saying that ‘’ Sunflower seeds and its products has been on steady upward trend, valued at about USD 25.47 billion in 2020, with a projection of reaching USD 30.11 by 2025 ’’

 

‘’Unarguably, Nigeria is a major producer of sunflower seeds in Africa, and one of the strategic players in the global market space because of the huge potentials of the product in the country. Notwithstanding this position, the country is not harnessing the huge potentials that exist in the sunflower sector effectively, because of low capacity to produce and process sunflower seeds and oil in a manner that would present Nigeria Sunflower products competitively in the global market place’’