Wheat : Russia Resumes With N111bn Worth Of Supply To Nigeria
Nigeria is set to earn $803 million from wheat production in 2025, with over 279,000 farmers engaged in producing 837,891 metric tonnes. Meanwhile, Russia resumed wheat exports to Nigeria, shipping 131,400 tonnes worth $74.3 million in March. The Federal Government has subsidized wheat seeds and fertilizers to boost production, with expectations of a bumper harvest this year.
As Federal Government plans to earn $803 million from wheat production in 2025, Russia has resumed export of 131,400 metric tonnes of the grain valued at N111 billion ($74.3 million) in March 2025 after it warned that export would fall by as much as 30 per cent this year, reaching their lowest levels since Soviet times.
According to the country’s federal agency overseeing agricultural exports, Agroexport, shipments to Nigeria and other African destinations commenced since March 10 2025.
So far, a total of 104,339 tonnes of the grain worth N88 billion ($59 million) have been ferried to Lagos and Tincan Island ports by three vessels.
According to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s Shipping Position, Good Heart and African Lily have arrived Apapa Bulk Terminal Limited (ABTL) with 57,049 tonnes and 9,895 tonnes respectively, while Desert Ranger laden with 37,395 tonnes has started offloading it consignment at Josepdam terminal, Tincan Island Port.
Recall that agricultural trade between Moscow and African countries has been steadily growing in recent years, with Russia now emerging as the continent’s leading supplier of grains.
Most Russian exports were cereals, primarily wheat, barley and maize, making up 87 per cent of the total food exports’ value to Africa.
The continent now takes 38 per cent of Russia’s total wheat exports, Igor Pavensky, head of agricultural market analysis at Rusagrotrans, noted in Agroexport’s report.
Early in the year, the Head of the Russian Grain Union (RGU), Arkady Zlochevsky, assured that demand from the main importers, Middle East and North Africa of Russian grain, would remain stable as it had maintained a strong position in Egypt and Algeria.
However, he explained that exports to Nigeria in 2024/25 season had exceeded 3 million tonnes in the current exporting season as demand from the country was increased due to its rapidly growing population.
The grain union said that farmers would sell between 48 and 49 million tonnes of grain overseas in 2025, down from 72 million tonnes in 2024, following the decline in exports.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government had engaged over 279,000 farmers with an estimated yield of 837,891 metric tonnes in 2025.
According to the National Project Coordinator of National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-pocket Project (NAGS-AP), Ishaku Buba, the wheat production programme for the 2024/2025 dry season has been launched across 16 wheat-producing states, targeting 280,000 farmers.
He said that the country anticipated a significant boost in wheat production, with the expected output generating revenue exceeding ₦1.25 trillion.
Also, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari has said that wheat farmers were expecting bumper harvest this year based on the Federal Government’s intervention in the phase one of dry season wheat production of 2024-2025, which ended on December 2024.
Kyari stressed that the Federal Government subsidised wheat seeds to the tune of 75 per cent, with farmers paying 25 per cent of the seed amount.
He noted: “Then, in terms of fertilisation, it’s also 50-50, just like we did last year, 50 per cent subsidy of fertiliser to the farmers.
We are waiting for the vegetative growth and also subsequently, the harvest sometime around March and April 2025. “We have a lot of expectations this year because the farmers have expressed desires to go into wheat more than ever before, simply because of the attraction and the profit.”
Kyari explained that Cross River had become a wheat producing state, saying this was the first time a southern state joined the other 15 northern wheat producing states.
The minister said: “It is a pilot scheme that we’re going to have in the northern part of Cross River. Wheat, of course, is a crop that is cultivated in cold season and under irrigation.
In addition to the dry season, we also intend to pilot wet season wheat cultivation in highland areas that are temperate, that are colder, places like Taraba , Plateau , and the same Cross River.
“We have a harvest that far exceeds that of the previous year in all the major staple crops that we have cultivated during the wet season in 2024.
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Source : New Telegraphng
