CEM REPORT | Nigerian companies have not been able to study Korean market to understand what is needed and the requirement. This is the reason export opportunity in the Asian country is yet to be substantially exploited especially in the agro export.
This is the submission of the Republic of Korea Ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Young-Chae last week in Abuja after disclosing the trade volume between Nigeria and Korea which hit the two billion-dollar mark in 2021 rising by about 50 per cent.
The Ambassador challenged Nigerian companies to study the Korean market to enable them produce what is needed by the Republic and the standard required.
“The trade volume between Nigeria and the Republic of Korea was around two billion dollars in 2021 which was an increment of about 50 per cent on what it used to be. The balance of trade between the countries is balanced because while Korea exports manufacturing goods into Nigeria, it also imports a lot of gas and crude oil from Nigeria.
While Nigeria has a lot of potential in the agric sector and Korea imports a lot of sesame seeds, Nigeria has not been able to play in that market because Nigerian companies have not studied the Korean market and customers to know what they want.
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“I hope more Nigerian companies will study the Korean market and Korean customers to know what they need and the standard requirements. While there is a lot of potential in sesame seeds and oil, Nigeria cannot play big there until Nigerian companies study what is needed.”
Ambassador Kim Young-Chae has continued to express confidence in the agro capacity of Nigeria to adequately feed the country and become major foreign exchange earner for the country by studying the Asian markets in Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and China.
He said in 2021 in Bayelsa that “It is dangerous for Nigeria to continue to rely on imported food. Nigeria can be self-sufficient and it can feed the whole of the African continent because it has the potential and it is possible.”
Huge export market opportunities are open for Nigeria to exploit in crops such as Sesamum seeds, Cassava, Cocoa, Cashew nuts, Coconuts, Ginger and Palm nuts and kernels.
In the first quarter of 2021, top exported Agricultural products from Nigeria were Sesamum seeds exported mainly to China (valued at N23.1 billion), Japan (N8.3billion) and Turkey (N3billion). This was followed by good fermented cocoa beans exported to the Netherlands (N9.2billion), Malaysia (N5.5billion) and the United States (N3.2 billion). Other major exports under this sector includes Cashew nuts in shell exported to Vietnam and India worth, N5.3billion N5.1 billion respectively .
