- Nigerian Crop Farmers to Explore $100bn Dubai Agro Import Market
Crop farmers in Nigeria have been urged to explore Dubai’s Agricultural import market valued at over $100 billion annually, through the importation of farm produce.
Speaking at a forum tagged, ‘Meet the Farmers Conference’ which was set up specially for Nigerian farmers, organizers of the forum, Crenov8, through their management consultants, Bola Oyedele, said that the forum was organized for major stake holders in the agricultural industry including, Nigerian farmers and the government in order to acquaint them of the opportunity in Dubai’s Agro market.
Oyedele said that Dubai’s government agency, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Dubai Municipality revealed that in 2016, the City imported agricultural produce valued at $100bn from countries around the globe.
She said, “From a research that we conducted from a government agency; in this case the Dubai Municipal Municipality and Dubai Chamber of Commerce, we saw that in 2016, Dubai imported $100bn worth of agricultural produce from around the world.”
She also disclosed that a large number of importation of farm produce into Dubai were traced to the African continents but not from Africa, adding that the goal of the forum was to change the status quo.
“When you check what is going to Nigeria and Africa from these $100bn imports, you will be surprised that it is something very minute. That was how the curiosity began and we started going to the agencies, government ministries and farmers, asking them why they are not exploiting the Dubai market” she said.
She added, “So if our goods were going to Dubai, why are these goods not going through indigenes of Nigeria and other African countries? It was also discovered that a lot of our farmers do not know much about the Dubai market.”
Oyedele also revealed that, Dubai’s food supply is mainly dependent on agricultural importation because of shortage of land for agriculture and that Africa has all the Agricultural items Dubai need but are ignorant about the Dubai market as most Africans only regard Dubai as a vacation city.
She said, ” Many people see Dubai as a place where they go for vacation or do one or two businesses. But they key thing is that in Europe and America, they have farmlands where they cultivate crops; but Dubai doesn’t have that space.”
“This is why they spend so much importing agricultural produce and right here in Nigeria, we have the resources and food which they need. In Africa, we have these food items. Why can’t we export and tap from this $100bn market?” she added.
Considering Dubai’s importation prerequisite for agricultural produce from other countries, Oyedele said that farmers will be provided with essential information in that regard and that the most essential prerequisite is the quality of agricultural produce.
She said, “What we do as a firm; depending on the specific commodity, is that we provide information on the requirements. And when you talk about standards, the fact is that we are consuming these food items that we plan to export.
“So it is not as if our food are bad or poisonous or not good for health. But some countries will tell you that you must have the required certification. Therefore, the basic standard is to ensure that you meet the first requirement, which is that it is healthy enough to be consumed”.