By Binta Shama
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC), on Thursday the 22nd of August, approached the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), with the purpose of exchanging views on the utilization of Nigeria’s industrial raw materials particularly palm oil and palm biomass.
During their working visit to the Council, the Secretary General of CPOPC, Dr. Rizal Affandi Lukman said raw material is a very important input for any processing industry. Raw materials provide very important request in producing high quality products. Having research in raw material, we can produce palm oil products which can be beneficial and used in our society and industries. If these two, research and raw materials combine together in one institution under your leadership, I believe many innovative products can be produced in a competitive and innovative manner.
“The research can be done through thinking outside of the box by starting simple things like the waste which is a very useful ingredient and product that can be recycled and reused with high benefits. The Council is part of several countries producing palm oil which is why the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia established the Council. We came to Nigeria to meet with necessary stakeholders to share this initiative which your organization happens to be one of them.
“The production of palm oil which your society consumes is no longer there, therefore you import. So, I think the first priority that can be done is to help CPOPC have a program in increasing the level of production of palm oil to fulfill the domestic use in Nigeria. We also discovered that the entire African continent is importing palm oil, so that’s going to be a lager importation. We want to help Nigeria in fulfilling self sufficiency of the palm oil for the entire African continent and learn from each other,” he added.
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Speaking, the Director General of RMRDC, Prof. Nnanyelugo Martin Ike-Muonso, said that the Council is the vanguard of all raw materials in the country.
He said, “Oil will always be home to us because it is a natural phenomenon from God. If you want to boost competitiveness, you will have to look at the competitive value chain of oil. The only place you can research and conclude on these things are from here, and it is the fastest and most sustainable way of achieving this. We have a lot of research activities going on, we can boast of what we have as an Agency and we possess the potentials you need.”
Speaking further he urged CPOPC to set up a palm research with the support of RMRDC. “We have some, but I will carve out a pseudo department to focus on oil with support from you to drive this initiative.
“Yesterday a University from the East visited, they are leading in oil production. We agreed to set up a Centre of Excellence in Agric-Tech area for the purpose of development, so I will be happy if you can support us with that kind of initiative particularly for technologies that can help process the palm sector in general.”
Earlier, the Director of Agro and Agriculture Allied (AAD) of RMRDC, Dr. Sab Ebiriekwe, said that currently Nigeria imports well over 450 tons of oil which costs about $6bn yearly when we are supposed to be the ones exporting at such levels. Nigeria lacks the technique of harvesting and processing, so a good collaboration like this will work because we are in charge of processing raw materials in the country and addressing its value because raw material may not make any meaning without any added value to it.
We have a specialized area we want you to come in, like the specialization in Sludge Palm Oil (SPO), to feed our pharmaceutical industry. SPO faces competitions from other oils internationally and there are areas of collaboration to processing our SPO. Another is in the area of awareness and education, due to lack of skills, they use the old method and the yield is insignificant. So, there is need to train or have a capacity building for our farmers to expose them to the best practices in order to have the knowledge of how to make the palm oil sellable.
To make the palm sellable you can equally help with standards and certifications, to be able to certify our products and also become members of the round table, joining the global markets of Asia and Europe. Your coming is very significant.
In response, the Deputy Secretary General of CPOPC, Datuk Nageep disclosed that the initiative of palm produce has led to zero failure in power supply. We have one of the best research system in the world and that’s why Indonesia and Malaysia are growing.
Further speaking, he urged the DG to send some members of staff to their country with CPOPC facilitating it to see what they have achieved and how far their countries have gone.
