Africa: Area Not Producing Sufficient Palm Oil to Meet Demand

ECOWAS Fee’s Director of Customs, Union and Taxation, Salifou Tiemtore, has lamented that West African international locations aren’t producing sufficient palm oil to fulfill members’ wants.

He disclosed this whereas chatting with journalists on the sideline of the assembly on the free motion of palm oil underneath the ECOWAS preferential tariff regime – ECOWAS Commerce Liberalization Scheme (ETLS), in Abuja on Tuesday.

Tiemtore mentioned: “Let me inform you the reality, until now, with the statistics now we have, we nonetheless have to import palm oil. What we’re producing will not be sufficient for our personal consumption.

“When you take a rustic like Nigeria, it has the capability to double its manufacturing by way of palm oil however we have to put in place some incentives in order that by ECOWAS ETLS Nigeria can cowl the Nigerian market and in addition transcend the Nigerian market.”

He mentioned the area has the potential to fulfill the wants of member states if help got to entrepreneurs to increase manufacturing and benefit from the ECOWAS ETLS.

Mrs Massandje Toure-Litse, ECOWAS Fee’s Commissioner for Financial Affairs and Agriculture, mentioned one of many challenges in palm oil buying and selling within the area was taxation, including that ECOWAS ETLS had eradicated tariffs in enterprise transactions throughout the area.

She mentioned: “Some merchandise will go to some international locations and the international locations will ask them to pay tariffs after we know that underneath ECOWAS regulation, items produced in our area must be freed from tax.

“We now have invited all of the international locations to come back and have a dialogue to resolve the problems within the commercialisation of palm oil within the area. The international locations invited are Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia.”

In his deal with of welcome, the Head of the ECOWAS Nationwide Unit on the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, Ambassador Yakubu Dadu, mentioned regardless of the outstanding success of the ETLS, “we discover ourselves dealing with challenges throughout the pivotal palm oil sector.

“The cross-border motion of palm oil has encountered origin-related disagreements amongst Member States, posing a menace to the sector’s stability and development potential.

“It’s in recognition of those challenges that now we have gathered right here in the present day, united by a shared dedication to have frank discussions that might strengthen and shield the palm oil sector, guaranteeing its resilience towards exterior competitors.”

The assembly is a platform for dialog with palm oil-producing international locations and trade stakeholders to determine measurable metric thresholds primarily based on the manufacturing capability of palm oil, taking into consideration the financial situations of ECOWAS Member States.

“We are going to delve into discussions on palm oil manufacturing capability within the area, analyze import and export information, determine and perceive the challenges confronted by the sector underneath the ETLS, and collectively suggest lasting options to deal with these challenges,” he mentioned.