By Samuel
Nigeria in the second quarter of 2020 has reaped N78.1 billion in exported agricultural goods, a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed.
According to the stats agency, the total trade in agricultural goods during the quarter stood at N493.7 billion.
The NBS made this known in its recent report on ‘Foreign trade in goods statistics’ for the second quarter of 2020.
Countries in the continent of Asia, Europe and America were among those who received the bulk of Nigeria’s agricultural products.
Statistics showed that most agricultural goods were exported at N43.6 billion (Asia), N26.4 billion (Europe), and N6.6 billion (America).
Raw cocoa beans, sesame seeds, cashew nuts, fermented cocoa beans and other produce were spotted as key drivers of the country’s agricultural product exports in the quarter under review.
The report cited the Netherlands (N9.3 billion), Indonesia (N3.7 billion) and United States(N2.4 billion) as main consumers of superior quality cocoa.
Other agricultural exports were Sesame seeds exported to Japan (N6 billion) and China (N2.3 billion). Cashew nuts worth N12 billion were exported to Vietnam.
Durum wheat worth N41 billion was also imported from the United States, Russia (N28.8 billion) and Latvia (N24.5 billion).
Meanwhile, on foreign trade, the NBS reported a total of 31.41 percent of goods imported into Nigeria were from China.
“Nigeria’s imports, by country of origin, shows goods were imported mainly from China (N1.26 trillion or 31.41 percent), United States (N428.9 billion or 10.66 percent), India (N322.3 billion or 8.01 percent), and the Netherlands (N202.9 billion or 5.04 percent) respectively.
“The value of exports in Q2, 2020 stood at N2.22 trillion, a decrease of 45.64 percent compared to Q1, 2020 and 51.73 percent compared to Q2, 2019.
“The year to date export amounted to N6.3 trillion, representing a percent decline compared to 2019,” the report read in part.
