The Minister of Agriculture and
Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said that Nigeria would soon begin
exporting dry yam to China. He spoke while inaugurating the
committee on Nigerian yam export programme in Abuja.
“The Chinese were here a few days
ago and were asking for dry yam. I wondered why they wanted it dried.
The Chinese are very clever, they said 40% of yam is water and they don’t want the water, they want the yams. So if we have to ship yams to China, we have to find a way of drying it,” he said.
The Chinese are very clever, they said 40% of yam is water and they don’t want the water, they want the yams. So if we have to ship yams to China, we have to find a way of drying it,” he said.
The minister while quoting figures
from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said Nigeria, which produces
61.7% of total global production, does not have a share of the yam export
market.
“Unfortunately, we are not among the
yam exporters-that is something to worry us. Ghana seems to control the African
export market. I am not sure if they produce as much yams as Niger, Benue,
Ebonyi or Ekiti states,” he said.
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