Farmers exported N60.5bn goods in three months – NBS

Nigerian farmers exported goods worth N60.5bn in the third quarter of 2020.

During the quarter, total trade in agricultural goods stood at N563.9bn, according to figures obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics on foreign trade.

Analysis by economic region showed that agricultural goods were exported to Asia (N32.2bn), Europe (N16.7bn), Africa (N9.1bn) and America (N2.4bn).

The key drivers of agricultural products exports were sesamum seeds, cashew nuts, good fermented cocoa beans and superior quality raw cocoa beans.

Sesamum seeds were exported mainly to Japan (N5.3bn) and China (N4.7bn), while cashew nuts worth N8.3bn and N2.2bn were exported to Vietnam and India respectively.

In terms of imports, durum wheat worth N55.5bn was imported from the United States, N46.6bn from Russia and N46.5bn from Canada.

This was followed by mackerel, imported from Russia worth N13.8bn, Netherlands (N5.8bn) and Japan (N2.6bn).

Also in this category was maize seed worth N25.9bn imported from Argentina.

The total trade in solid mineral goods stood at N40.8bn in Q3, 2020, comprising an import component of N35.2bn and export component of N5.5bn.

The major products exported under this sector were cement worth N1.4bn exported to Niger Republic.

This was followed by cement clinkers exported to Cameroon, worth N1.2bn as well as lead ores and concentrate exported to China, worth N1.0bn.

In terms of imports, plasters of calcined gypsum were mainly imported from Turkey (N4bn) and Egypt (N1.9bn).

This was followed by gypsum, imported from Spain (worth N4.4bn).

Crude salt was also imported from Brazil and Namibia – worth N3.2bn and N1.9bn respectively.

Manufactured imports stood at N3.43tn, according to the NBS.

The main drivers were used vehicles imported from the United States (N134.8bn) as well as antibiotics imported from The Netherlands (N78.1bn), India (N25.4bn) and China (N10.2bn).

Other goods imported under this category were motorcycles from India (N50.7bn) and from China (N22.4bn).

The value of manufactured goods trade in Q3, 2020 stood at N3.56tn.

Out of this, the export component accounted for N133bn.

The products that drove up manufactured exports were floating or submersible drilling platform exported to Equatorial Guinea (N21.96bn), vessels and other floating structures to Denmark, Congo and Cameroun valued at N9.8bn, N3.9bn and N3.6bn respectively.

Export trade on manufactured goods by region showed that goods were exported mainly to Africa (N78.4bn), Europe (N28.5bn) and Asia (N16.9bn).

Import trade by region showed that manufactured goods were mainly imported from Asia (N2.1tn), Europe (N773.3bn) and America (N410.99bn).