Cashew farmers decry FG’s ban on raw shea-nut exports
yarkarkara
The nation’s cashew farmers decried the six-month ban by the Federal Government on raw shea-nut exports from Nigeria yesterday.
Reacting to the decision and action by the Federal Government on the raw shea-nut export ban, the National President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Dr Joseph Ajanaku, while speaking with Vanguard on the development, lamented the hurried move by the government to ban the raw export of the commodity, asserting that bans imposed on certain commodities will kill agriculture in Nigeria.
Ajanaku pointed out that the ban was not well conceived; therefore, he described it as a step in the wrong direction, as the price of shea nuts had fallen from N1 million to about N700,000 within 24 hours when the ban was announced last week.
He said: “Now they are subtly killing agriculture because by the time you are discouraging our farmers from going into production, what are you doing? You are killing that sector.
“The little one that they are producing, you want to ban it, and this ban on raw shea-nut exports is for six months, and I just hope that the Nigerian government will quickly realize the sudden move of some persons is to kill agriculture in Nigeria, and that is where they are going.”
Six months not feasible to fix challenges in the shea-nut industry
“Within these six months, will there be investors who will come and invest in processing, or is it a magic? Where are investors coming from within these six months? What kind of machines are you going to install within these six months?
“Importing equipment to Nigeria takes a minimum of 60 days, and that is already two months gone. The installation, then training, what time are you going to process within the six months? In fact, this action by the government is just a gimmick.
“After six months, it will be extended. Maybe the next extension will be for one year. Those things are happening in other African countries now. The Republic of Benin banned the export of raw cashew nuts. Are they processing them now? What has it entered into? There are numerous smuggling activities taking place in that country.
“Moreover, this six-month ban on raw shea-nut exports cannot fix the challenges farmers are facing; rather, those who have invested in it took loans from the banks, and this ban would make them run into huge losses, and they will be indebted.
“Our cashew used to go to the Benin Republic; it is now coming to Nigeria and going to Togo because it is not available to them yet in the Benin Republic.
The ban on shea-nut exports in Nigeria has just opened the door for smuggling.
“So, all this idea of a ban in the agricultural sector is not the panacea to challenges in the agric space.
“The government should look at what is possible. One, the cost of power for processing, high interest rate, poor research, lack of processing machines, lack of energy for processing and packaging.”
Ban on shea-nut exports threatens to affect cocoa, others
Meanwhile, according to him, “the ban on raw shea-nut exports serves as a very big threat to other agricultural commodities, including cocoa.
“All these factories that are saying that the government should ban the export of raw materials so that they can have it processed, by the time the farmers are no longer farming, those factories will still close down. It will be worse for them at that time because they cannot import raw materials.
Recommendations
“The basic things to do is to lift the ban, ensure stable and sustainable policies, good road infrastructure, constant power supply, security on farms, stability of Naira, interventions to boost farmers’ productivity, capacity building on processing, introducing basic technology in processing, packaging, working closely with farm based organizations, and other things to put in place.”
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