The list below are the top agribusiness in Nigeria that are being exported to other countries for foreign exchange. We understand that Nigeria has so many agricultural products demanded at the export market. The list of such products is inexhaustible.
Top Agric export as at Q2 2021
• Cocoa – N63.18 billion
• Cashew nuts – N42.94 billion
• Sesamum seeds – N21.64 billion
• Coconut – N13.02 billion
• Ginger – N3.75 billion
• Frozen sea foods – N3.46 billion
• Brasil nuts in shell – N3.28 billion
• Natural cocoa butter – N2.44 billion
• Sesame oil and its fraction – N1.29 billion
• Palm nuts and kernels – N1.08 billion
Other Agric Export Products are:
• Snail
• Cotton
• Natural rubber
• Grounut
• Ugu leaf
• Frozen shrimps
Nigeria’s Agric Export Market Analysis
Cocoa
Cocoa is one of the major Nigeria’s non oil, agriculture foreign earner. Nigeria exported cocoa worth N63.18 billion in second quarter, 2021. Nigeria is one of the world largest cocoa exporting countries in the world. Before now what is exported is cocoa beans. With rent innovation by confectionery companies who are no adopting the use of cocoa pulp as a substitute for sugar in producing natural chocolate, there is prospect for cocoa farmers, producers and exporters.
Presently cocoa is exported from Nigeria in good fermented beans or superior raw beans.
Good fermented Nigerian cocoa beans:
The top destinations for the product are Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Indonesia, and Spain.
Germany was the biggest importer with N5.9 billion, Netherlands (N5.7 billion), Belgium (N4.23 billion), Indonesia (N1.1 billion) and Spain (N1 billion).
Superior quality raw cocoa beans: This item is different from the fragmented cocoa. It is described as cocoa in raw form and it is the second in demand of Nigeria’s cocoa beans product exported.
The top destinations for the product are Indonesia, Belgium, Germany, Malaysia, and Estonia.
Indonesia is the biggest market for the product, recording N2.9 billion, Belgium (N705.6 million), Germany (N366.7 million), Malaysia (N113.8 million) and Estonia (NN83.10 million).
Cashew
Cashew nut is another lucrative agriculture for export in Nigeria. With the export statistics of Q2 2021, cashew is the second largest agric export earner for Nigeria with N42.94 billion in revenue.
Cashew can be export in shell or shelled.
The top destinations are Vietnam, India, USA, Russia and the Netherlands.
Vietnam is the biggest importer with N2.8 billion, India (N1.2 billion), USA (N104 million), Russia (N42 million) and the Netherlands (N33.3 million).
Sesamum seeds
Sesamum seeds have been Nigeria’s agricultural product export biggest earner for the past years. In the first quarter of 2019, Nigeria made the sum of N39.6 billion from the export of the product. But in the second quarter of 2021 it became the third biggest earner with N21.64 billion export revenue.
Top destinations for the product include Japan, China, Turkey, India, and Vietnam.
Japan is the biggest destination for the product in the first quarter, recording N8.15 billion of Nigeria’s export product.
Other top countries like China imported Sesamum seeds estimated at N7.23 billion, Turkey (N6.72 billion) and India (N6 billion).
Ginger
Nigeria’s export market for ginger returned in the first quarter of 2019 after the ginger product did not make the list of Nigeria’s top agricultural export products in the last quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, it ranks Nigeria’s 7th biggest agricultural export products in Q1 2019, generating N1.35 billion. Now in the Q2 2021 it ranked 5th with N3.75 billion.
Rubber
Natural rubber latex can be marketed both in the domestic and international markets. To sell at the domestic market, you can sell to off takers, rubber processing companies, if you do not process by yourself, and to factories that use natural rubber latex as raw material. You can sell at the international market through export. You can leverage on globalization in agricultural marketing. Selling at the international market will earn you more money but you need to produce on larger quantities so as to reduce costs of marketing. Whether it the local or international markets, there are many buyers looking for the product. The Nigerian and African buyers alone need more rubber fluid (latex) than what is produced locally. So you will not find it difficult to sell. In other words, buyers will be looking for you.
A ton of rubber latex is about $2,000, the processed rubber is as high as $6,000.
Rubber farming profit margin about 0.7.
Frozen shrimps
Nigeria’s 5th biggest export product changed in the last quarter as frozen shrimps climbed two steps up. In Q1 2019, revenue generated from the export of frozen shrimps was estimated at N2.40 billion.
In Q4 2018, frozen shrimps ranked the 7th biggest agricultural export in Nigeria.
The top destinations for the product are Netherlands, Belgium, France, Vietnam, and the USA.
The Netherlands is the biggest market with (N1.18 billion), Belgium (N385.9 million), France (N279.3 million), Vietnam (N239 million) and USA (N122.6 million).
Natural Cocoa Butter
Natural cocoa butter ranks Nigeria’s 8th biggest agricultural export product. The product generated the sum of N2.44billion for the country in Q2 2021, as against N1.22 billion generated in Q1 2019. This shows 100% increase in export revenue in 2 years.
Challenges Facing Nigeria’s Agric Export
Many of Nigerian agric commodities are rejected at international markets especially in the EU and American countries for low quantity. The low quality is mostly as a result of poor farming techniques adopted by Nigerian farmers, poor processing and handling procedure, and rot occasioned by export processing delays due to inefficient transport system and government agencies bureaucratic bottlenecks. Most of agricultural products for export are freshly produced items with shot shelf life and do not require long time voyage. It takes at least 2 weeks to transport goods to seaports in Apapa Lagos. Nigerian Customs export desk treats agro products like any other product for export thereby delaying what is supposed to be given expedited documentation. The Nigerian Quarantine Service are not also helping matters.