The economy has now recovered from recession, growing at 0.55 per cent in the second quarter of 2017, with agriculture growing at 3.01 per cent in Q2, 2017.
This is an indication that Federal Government must be proactive in its quest to earn $150 billion extra from non-oil exports as part of the country’s Zero Oil Plan (ZOP).
Presently, most of agric produce price are far higher than crude oil price within the international market. However, a barrel of crude oil sells for $50 (a bit less)
Assuming $1 = N400, then a barrel of oil cost N20, 000. One barrel contains about 159 litres, thus a litre of crude oil cost N125
On refining, there are over 1500 by-products but the major ones are Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene LPG. In a barrel, one can manipulate the quantity of each by how one sets the machine but on average after processing, one get 46l of diesel and 72l of gasoline.
Coming to market value of oil: a litre of diesel sold for N210, and a litre of pms (fuel) N145 while a litre of Kerosene N110. In the market today, when it comes to agric produce (non-oil products), a litre of honey sold for N600, a litre of Palm oil is N400, a litre of groundnut oil is N240 and a litre of milk is N561 while a Kilogram of tomatoes is N555.
At the recent National Economic Council meeting, it was revealed that agriculture exports in Q2 were driven by the export of Cashew nuts worth N13.5billion or 45.4 per cent of the total agriculture exports and 1.37 per cent of total exports. Cashew nuts export to Vietnam was N12.16 billion; N1.4billion to India and N6.34 million to Kazakhstan. Sesame seed exports in Q2 were N7.0 billion or 23.6 per cent of total agriculture exports. Sesame seeds export to Japan was N1.3 billion; India N0.9 billion; Turkey N0.9 billion; South Korea N0.8billion; and China N0.6 billion.