Brazil Earns N104bn From Raw Sugar Trade With Nigeria
A 30% fall in global raw sugar prices prompted Nigeria to import 233,026 tonnes of Brazilian sugar worth $76.7 million. Meanwhile, NSDC is mobilising a $1 billion investment pipeline and reforms under NSMP 2.0 to boost domestic production, reduce imports and develop a sugar-based bio-industrial ecosystem.
Thirty per cent crash in price has prompted shipments of 233,026 tonnes of bulk raw sugar valued at N104 billion ($76.7 million) from the Port of Santo in Brazil to Lagos Port in less two months from five vessels.
Currently, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s shipping data indicated Desert Grace has berthed with 57,693 tonnes at the Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited (ABTL) and Marimyra, 55,000 tonnes at Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GNDL) terminal.
Also in July, the port took delivery of 120,333 tonnes from three vessels as price was reduced from $470/ tonne to $329/tonne, saying Ken Wave discharged 52, 425 tonnes; Equinox Sofrano, 57,000 tonnes and Bulk Colombia, 10,908 tonnes.
Meanwhile the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) is mobilising a $1 billion investment pipeline to accelerate Nigeria’s drive towards sugar self-sufficiency and retain about $1 billion currently spent annually on sugar imports within the domestic economy.
The council is anchoring the drive on a $1 billion Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), plus finance partnership with SINOMACH of China, alongside a ₦10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund, established with the Bank of Industry (BOI).
According to the Executive Secretary of NSDC, Mr. Kamar Bakrin, Nigeria consumes about 1.8 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, with approximately $1 billion flowing to foreign producers each year.
He disclosed in Abuja while receiving members of the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD), on a courtesy visit to the council, saying that the import gap was a ready domestic market that could be captured by Nigerian producers through the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan NSMP 2.0.
He described NSMP 2.0 as an “acceleration mandate” aimed at compressing Nigeria’s path to selfsufficiency and delivering about two million metric tonnes of locally produced sugar. Bakrin stressed that the council was working to develop sugarcane into the foundation of a broader bio-industrial ecosystem, capable of producing sugar, ethanol, animal feed and electricity.
He said: “We have been blessed with a crop that is one of the most generous God has ever made. From sugarcane you can get sugar, you can get ethanol, you can get animal feed, you can produce power. “Our job is to build a bio-industrial ecosystem around it, this is not just about producing a commodity.”
The executive secretary explained that the Backward Integration Programme (BIP), had been rebuilt around four principles, qualify, reward, verify and enforce to ensure that import quota privileges were matched by genuine domestic production.
According to him, companies seeking import quotas must demonstrate commitment to backward integration, while major refiners would be required to provide audited production commitments tied to their quotas, adding that the council was strengthening its internal systems through Standard Operating Procedures and Six Sigma methodology to establish standardised and sustainable processes.
He said: “I hold a very strong conviction that the difference between the countries that industrialised and those that did not rarely has to do with the quality of their plants. It is the quality of their institutions.”
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Source : New Telegraph
