Nigeria Targets $22bn From Global Coconut Market

With the global coconut market size valued at $13.230 billion last year, there are efforts to explore the space predicted to reach $22 billion in 2028, according to analysts. Chairman, First African Coconut Company Limited, John-Bede Anthonio has urged investors and various governments to increase production to achieve N20 billion yearly export target.

His words: ”To generate N20 billion annually from coconut, we need to develop plantations. Coconut will grow in 20 states of the Nigeria. Private sector and government will have to develop 100,000 hectares of coconut plantation in 20 states.” For him, the industry is a revenue spinner with huge potential for growth, despite the challenges facing it.

To get more people to explore opportunities in the industry, he urged that educational policies in states inculcate agricultural in primary school and tertiary institutions. He added that that there should be tax review on agriculture development.

Director-General, Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, has also been advocating increased cultivation and value addition to coconuts for agro-economic and social development. This follows the forecast that the global coconut by-product market size was expected to reach $95.64 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.

According to him, the main constraint of the coconut sub-sector is low production attributable to low productivity and expansion and rehabilitation of the area under coconut production. He identified the key factors responsible for the low productivity of this wonder crop to include poor coconut husbandry practices, the effect of drought stress, poor soil fertility, incidence and severity of pests and diseases estimated to have killed more than eight million palms.

In 2019, more than 80 per cent of the national requirement was met through importation and the country expended $219,446.53 and $293,214.22 on coconut import in 2019 and 2018. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the country ranks 19th in the global coconut production list.

According to the market analysis by the United States’Department of Agriculture (USDA), the industrial consumption of coconut oil in the cosmetic and skincare industry increased from 1.51 million metric tonnes in 2018 to 1.79 million metric tons in 2019.