Senior Project Manager at Fairtrade, Freyja Detjen have said that Nigeria’s food production is poised to increase by 48% to €62.6 billion between 2021 and 2024.
Detjen stated this at a pre-media and stakeholders’ pre-exhibition meet-up to drive growth in agrofood sector held in Lagos state.
This is despite the rising inflation in the country that saw the inflation rate for January rose to 29.90% from 28.92% recorded in the previous month according to the latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) inflation report.
The increase marked the twelfth consecutive increase in the inflation rate from February 2023.
She stated that Nigeria’s food production had witnessed a remarkable surge of 39.6% in recent years, from €26 billion in 2016 to €36.3 billion in 2020.
She said in spite of the significant investments in local food production, Nigeria’s food imports stood at $6.9 billion in 2022, positioning the nation as one of Africa’s foremost food importers.
Detjen said the ninth agrofood and plastprintpack Nigeria 2024 would be the largest ever, saying that global technology leaders from 17 countries would attend the three-day conference.
What you should know
TheWitness reported that the NBS reports a significant surge in the food inflation rate for January 2024, reaching a year-on-year high of 35.41%. This marks a substantial 11.10%-point increase from the 24.32% observed in January 2023, highlighting a pronounced rise in the cost of food items.
