Nigerian growers of sorghum can position themselves to benefit from the trade war that is heating up between the United States (US) and China.
The US and China have moved to the brink of a trade war when President Donald Trump of the US announced last week Friday that tariffs on Chinese imports would take effect in three weeks’ time while pledging an additional investment restrictions, prompting an immediate vow of retaliation from Beijing.
Trump had made a pledge of more tariffs if China follows through on the retaliation threats on US grains such as maize, sorghum and soybeans and farm produce.
This has prompted importers of US sorghum to China to commence search for other markets for the importation of the crop.
“Our farmers can be winners from the trade war if we position ourselves to benefit greatly from the trade war. Most countries that grow these crops are already preparing themselves, so Nigeria needs to do same to be one of the winners,” said AfricanFarmer Mogaji, CEO, X-Ray Consulting Farms said.
Nigeria is a natural habitat for many varieties of sorghum and the world’s second largest producer and supplier of the crop, churning out 11 million metric tons per annum, according to data obtained from the Federal Ministry Agriculture.
“This is an opportunity for Nigerian growers and it will open up our agricultural export to China because the major export to China from the US are agricultural commodities,” Muda Yusuf , director general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said in a telephone response to BusinessDay questions.
“Since China is now taking a retaliation action in terms of trade against the US, it is likely to affect more of agricultural export from US to China. This would create a gap in the Chinese market for agricultural imports, and this will create opportunities for a country like Nigeria to take advantage to fill the gap that is being created.
“What is important for Nigeria now in all of this is to be able to deliver the right kind of quality and price for the commodities since we would be competing with our producing nations also eyeing the Chinese market. We need to position ourselves properly to take advantage of the opportunity,” Yusuf said.
Experts urged farmers to scale up their sorghum production and position themselves for the opportunity, saying it takes only three months to grow any variety of sorghum in the country.
Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development while highlighting the opportunities in Nigeria’s agricultural sector during the recent BusinessDay’s Agribusiness conference held in Lagos, had already hinted that the China’s government is now making a demand for Nigeria’s sorghum.
Like shea nuts, sorghum has the potential to be a huge export earner for the country, but years of low investment, lack of government support and natural vagaries has limited the huge potentials.
“Government must start now to support sorghum farmers to boost their production. So that when the opportunity presents itself we would benefit hugely,” Mogaji who was earlier quoted said.
Sorghum an important cereal crop is fast booming in the Nigerian market now as brewers in the country are now using a larger percentage of the crop in place of barley for brewing beer and malt drinks.
As a result, brewers are making huge investment in sorghum plants in the country owing to their hunt for local substitutes.
Nigeria now grows sorghum variety with high malting properties.“Nigeria Breweries funded a sorghum research at the institute and we developed a sorghum variety with high malting properties which can be used in place of barley as by-product for brewing beer and malt,” said Ibrahim Umar Abubakar, director, Institute for Agricultural Research, IAR Zaria.
Apart from it used for production in the brewery industry, Sorghum is the 4th most important cereal after wheat, rice and maize and is used as a maize substitute for livestock feeds because of their similar nutritional values.