West Africa not producing enough palm oil to meet its needs

RBD Palm Oil

Togo

Published Mar 14, 2024

Tridge summary

Salifou Tiemtore, the ECOWAS Commission’s Director of Customs, Union and Taxation, has highlighted that West African countries are not producing enough palm oil to meet their needs, leading to a reliance on imports. He suggested that with the right incentives, countries like Nigeria could potentially double their production. The ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) could provide a solution by supporting entrepreneurs to expand production. However, challenges such as taxation and origin-related disagreements among Member States pose obstacles to the sector.

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Original content

ECOWAS Commission’s Director of Customs, Union and Taxation, Salifou Tiemtore, has lamented that West African countries are not producing enough palm oil to meet members’ needs. He disclosed this while speaking to journalists on the sideline of the meeting on the free movement of palm oil under the ECOWAS preferential tariff regime – ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), in Abuja on Tuesday. Tiemtore said: “Let me tell you the truth, till now, with the statistics we have, we still need to import palm oil. What we are producing is not enough for our own consumption. “If you take a country like Nigeria, it has the capacity to double its production in terms of palm oil but we need to put in place some incentives so that through ECOWAS ETLS Nigeria can cover the Nigerian market and also go beyond the Nigerian market.” He said the region has the potential to meet the needs of member states if support were given to entrepreneurs to expand production and take advantage of the ECOWAS ...

Source: UkrAgroConsult