PZ, Wilmar In $650m Oil Palm Investment
A Singapore-based Wilmar International and PZ Cusson Nigeria have entered into a joint venture and invested more than $650 million in oil palm plantations and processing facilities in Nigeria.
For instance, the company planted almost 26,500 hectares of oil palm in Cross River State.
The company’s investments in oil palm plantations and associated infrastructures in Cross River State currently stand at about N45 billion (approximately $150 million). These include a processing plant at Calaro Estate in Akamkpa Local Government Area in Cross River State. The estate consists a 45 tonne per hour palm oil mill (POM) and a 2.5 tonne per hour kernel crushing plant (KCP).
Its Chief Executive Officer, Christos Giannopoulos, said the POM basically converts fresh fruit bunches (FFB) into palm oil. This process involves extracting red palm oil from the fleshy outer mesocarp of the palm fruit. The product is known as Crude Palm Oil (CPO), similar to the red palm oil that is sold in the local market.The KCP, on the other hand, extracts palm kernel oil (PKO) from the palm kernels.The company’s palm oil mill at Ibad Oil Palm Estate in Cross River has the capacity of 20 tonnes per hour in terms of FFB processing.
He said the company has invested around N20 billion in an oil palm refinery in Ikorodu, Lagos State.
To the company, Nigeria has the biggest market in Africa and is the largest consumer of the palm oil in the region.
Currently, there is a massive gap between demand and supply. Estimates of this deficit are around 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes per annum.
Last year, he added that the company launched its Pilot Out growers Scheme. The goal is to support local farmers to develop viable and sustainable oil palm businesses.
As part of the programme, the company makes available, high quality seedlings for farmers, training them on Best Management Practices (BMPs) to optimise their yields.
For stakeholders, while there are significant efforts to reduce the gap between demand and supply of palm oil in Nigeria, there is massive smuggling of palm oil across the borders to the tune of 400,000 tons per annum due to which the federal government loses millions of dollars in revenue from duty and tax collection. The Nation
