Nigeria produces 1.4million mt of pineapples but can’t export them – Awolowo

He, however, regretted that the country was yet to maximise the benefit derivable from the pineapple production in the international markets.Awolowo said it was unfortunate that some countries as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and others that ranked far behind Nigeria in terms of annual pineapple production were exporting the product while Nigeria was still grappling […]

He, however, regretted that the country was yet to maximise the benefit derivable from the pineapple production in the international markets.
Awolowo said it was unfortunate that some countries as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon and others that ranked far behind Nigeria in terms of annual pineapple production were exporting the product while Nigeria was still grappling with how to export her pineapples to the international markets.
“In fact, Nigeria has not started maximising the benefits accruable to export in the international markets,” he remarked.
The executive director, who spoke while answering questions from journalists during a visit to Enugu San Carlos Farms (pineapple plantation) at Ihe, Awgu,  in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, said that  pineapple  has many by-products some of which Nigeria expended millions of Naira, annually, to import.
He added: “We believe that San Carlos Farms is now trying to put Nigeria on the export map in order to ensure that not only raw materials are exported, but products processed from pineapple products.”
Represented on the occasion by the Director, Product Development Department of NEPC, Henry Otowo, Awolowo said: “In the European Union alone, the import figure for pineapple is in the excess of 600million EUROS annually. Ghana controls about five percent of the annual market, Cote d’Ivoire controls about three percent. Globally, world production of pineapple is in excess of $2billion. So this is a market that Nigeria can partake in and then share to ensure that we diversify our revenue base because oil currently accounts for over 95 percent of our foreign exchange earnings. With this type of venture, we should be in a position to increase our foreign exchange earnings, rather than from oil.”
He said the main cause of Nigeria’s failure to export pineapple was the inability of government to implement policies and programmes for the nation’s development plans over the years.
“I think it’s lack of implementation of policies all along because if you look at the development plan over the years, from NEEDS to VISION 2010, it’s not the lack of ideas that is the bane of our development, but lack of implementation or execution of policies that have been enshrined in those development plans.”
Awolowo said that one of the core functions of NEPC was to identify products that it could develop and promote at the international markets, adding: “Currently, we have an initiative under the ‘One-State-One-Product’ programme which we call OSOP. In Enugu State, the two products candidates are cashew and palm oil. But again, with what we have now, pineapple is a potential candidate to be added into the basket of OSOP in Enugu State.”