The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has categorized Nigeria among the top 10 wheat importers in the world.
This is based on the ‘Food Outlook: Biannual Report on Global Food Markets’ by FAO released on Thursday.
According to the report, between 2018/19 and 2020/21, Nigeria imported averagely 5.2 million tonnes, and is forecasted that the import rate will increase to 5. 5 million tonnes by 2021/22, with an increase rate of 5.1 per cent based on a common July/June marketing season.
It said, “In Nigeria, the third-largest importer in Africa, wheat imports could fall marginally from last year’s record as a result of larger opening stocks.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria has recently indicated its plan to close the US dollar funding for wheat imports in an effort to reduce the country’s imports by 60 per cent over the next two years.”
FAO warned that there would be an increase in the cost of food imports by the end of 2021, which it said would likely affect the world’s poorest countries.
While speaking with the Reuters recently, the Deputy Director of the FAO’s Trade and Markets Division, Josef Schmidhuber, said, “The problem is not the world facing higher prices. The issue is vulnerable countries.”
Based on the FAO report, the world’s food import bill is projected to reach $1.72tn this year, up 12 per cent from $1.53tn in 2020.
It said, “The economic impacts of COVID-19 are not expected to hinder global demand for foodstuffs in 2021, nor did the pandemic curtail growth in the bill in 2020, the level of which stood as the previous record.
“Indeed, the year-on-year expansion of the bill in 2020 was mainly on account of a steadfast increase in imported volumes, especially those of staples; while in 2021, volumes are anticipated to remain robust, increased unit costs (international quotations and freight rates) are set to underpin overall growth in the world bill compared with last year.”
In August 2019, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered the closing of Nigerian borders to prevent smuggling of rice and other products.
The ban was eventually lifted in December 2020, a development the report said would benefit global import, although maybe at the detriment of the country due to the increase in cost of imports.
“In Nigeria, gains are expected to be facilitated by the December lifting of border closures,” the report said.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Nigeria spent N258.3bn on wheat importation in the first three months of 2021.
