Nigeria presently produces about 500,000 MT of Soybean annually
making it the largest producer of the product on the African continent.
Soybean is a legume which is produced in most the middle belt of the
country with Benue state accounting for about 45% of the total
production in country.Soybeans are an important source of high quality and inexpensive protein and oil. With an average protein content of 40% and oil content of 20%, soybean has the highest protein content of all food crops and is second only to groundnut in terms of oil content amongst food legumes. Soybeans are used in the production of milk, edible oil and animal feed. It’s high protein content and price makes it the best option in terms of treating malnutrition and would continue to expand the international market for the product which currently is estimated at US$40 billion.
Nigeria currently produces soybean worth $85 million in the international market and though most of the nation’s soybean is consumed locally where they are used in the production of soya milk and specially formulated foods to help malnourished infants and children, the international market for the product is growing and sustainable.
Foraminifera Market Research seeks to highlight the investment opportunity in the supply of soya beans to local industries in Nigeria.
The market for palm and edible oil is national. With a population of over one hundred and fifty {150,000,000} million people and an estimated national population growth rate of 5.7% per annum ,an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five {5} years, Nigeria has a large market for edible oil.
In 2005, in order to stimulate local production and attain self sufficiency in edible oil production, the government introduced the presidential initiative on the development of edible oil over a period not exceeding three {3} years. Under this initiative, attention was focused on the promotion of eleven scheduled oil seed crops which are oil palm seed, groundnut seed, Soya beans seed, cotton seed etc and production target was set for each of the crops under the programme as follow
1. Oil Palm: 1 million hectares capacity of producing 15 million fresh fruit bunches
2. Groundnut: 15 million tones annually
3. Soya beans: 670,000 1 million tones per annum
4. Seed Cotton: 1 million tones over the plan period
After five {5} years of the initiative, the domestic edible oil demand far exceeds the national production. The short fall in supply being estimated at about 50,000 tones per year. From the above figures, it is clear that there is a large and sustainable market for edible oil in Nigeria.
Soybean is an important source of high quality and inexpensive protein and oil. With an average protein content of 40% and oil content of 20%, soybean has the highest protein content of all food crops and is second only to groundnuts in terms of oil content amongst food legumes.
Because of it numerous uses, soya beans are in great demand and this opens an opportunity for interested investors to export the product.
The return on investment on the export of raw cashew nuts is estimated between 10%- 15%.