An initiative to push a popular Nigerian delicacy into the international market is being worked out at the moment, with utmost attention to international quality standard. It probably will not be the first time.
The encouraging scenario on this instance is the desire to give the push an institutional verve, with determination to meet every standard required.
When it comes to food and sundry delicacies, Nigeria has never been found wanting. Indeed, the country is endowed with food, spices and delicacies, with many of such bounties still partly explored and not fully developed. The latter-day global attention on jollof rice is but one instance of one delicacy that has been in existence for years but only burst into international attention and desire in recent times.
Don’t mind Ghana and the drama of its version of jollof rice challenging Nigeria’s. The latter has held the title for long, and has over time been developed with upgraded and exciting ingredients and intricacies in preparation. All said and done, the jollof contest is for the good of jollof rice.
Now, kilishi is about to storm the market in Europe and beyond, in a fresh, re-focused market drive.
With its origin from ancient Hausaland, kilishi is a snack delicacy made of dried cow meat, goat meat or sheep meat, garnished with garlic powder, ginger powder, cloves powder, salt, sauce, oil and sundry spices, depending on the desired taste.
Kilishi is produced with a dexterity that borders on art. The sliced sheets of meat get dried under the sun, coated with pepper and special pastes, with the relevant spices added along the process of turning and drying them. The coating ingredient often consists of peanut, yagi, onions, salt and ginger.
While what is known as beef jerky in America is similar to kilishi, it is not exactly kilishi. This elegant Nigerian delicacy has been certified as a very healthy snack, indeed, one of the healthiest.
The process of preparing kilishi contributes in making it a healthy snack. First, the sliced meat is dried up through a curing method, a process which entails drying in the sun or in fire at an appropriately set heat level. In the course of the drying of the meat, moisture and water in which microbes would have festered are totally eliminated. What is left is a crispy thin-layered sheet of meet that is well coated in ingredients that combine healthy condiments. In effect, kilishi is at the same time a high protein snack, low in carbohydrate and pleasant to eat. It has been rightly presented as a healthy snack that is good for anyone who does not want to add weight.
The ongoing initiative to take kilishi in an organized, more diligently and professionally produced way to the international market, aims to boost the government’s renewed effort to diversify the Nigerian economy and thereby taking to the international market things that Nigeria can offer the world.
The kilishi international marketing drive will be coming as a partnership effort of the National Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC) and INGO Third Sector Resource, a United Kingdom-based business and investment development firm.
Moving to leverage on its years of expertise and successful promotion of business links between African countries and Europe, INGO sees in the kilishi promotion initiative, a huge opportunity to bring a viable, nutritious and unique Nigerian product to the big market of Europe, which will, surely, embrace the snacks, if it is properly processed and presented.
The effort by the federal Government in recent years to diversify the economy and promote many other non-oil products gives INGO the impetus to take up kilishi for renewed total upgrade for the international market. Interestingly the Raw Material Research and Development Council has, on its own, been working on kilishi, with an eye on enhancing its quality, production standard and packaging, so that the world can enjoy the full goodness if offers.
There are, of course, some other varieties of kilishi, for instance from South Africa and few other sources. However, according to INGO Third Force Resource, the Nigerian kilishi is far better and richer, hence deserves to be properly packaged and presented in the international market in Europe and beyond.
Chief Uzo Owunne, London-based chairman of INGO Third Force Resource, marvelled at the array of products and food items of high value that Nigeria has, which products the international market will warmly embrace, if they are properly presented. Chief Owunne said he was encouraged to seek collaboration with the RMRDC after he tasted the kilishi produced by the agency in one of his visits to Abuja. He became convinced that the Nigerian snacks have a bright prospect in the international market.
The business- development -entrepreneur is of the view that government’s desire to diversify the Nigerian economy and lift it from heavy dependence on oil, can be attained in a short time frame. The success of the policy will depend, however, on removing bureaucratic bottlenecks and giving room to experts and entrepreneurs who have experience in different sectors of the economy, to bring their expertise to bear in developing any particular product or sector.
He further explained that no matter how top quality a primary product is, unless it is properly processed and brought to the standard required in the international market, such product cannot compete. This has been the
challenge Nigerian products face when they are brought out to the global market, without first, raising their standard, both in production and presentation.
With particular reference to kilishi, which he is focusing on, the INGO chairman, noted that the enormous potentials of the Nigerian meat snacks can only be met on the international market when adequate attention is paid to the entire stretch of its production, from the quality of the meat, to the hygienic processes of preparing it, preservation and packaging for consumers.
In the whole production process, he said, maximum attention must be paid, to ensure that the product is healthy, attractive and satisfactory to those who purchase them. For products sold on the international market, he said, there is no room to be sub-standard or to compromise in quality. There can be no cutting corner or poor handling of the product that may result in the meat getting spoilt.
Hassan Umar, a marketer of kilishi in Garki area of Abuja, expressed excitement at the prospect of kilishi being promoted abroad. Already he said, there are a number of Nigerians who come around once in a while to buy sizable quantities, apparently to take them abroad. He said the production of the snacks can be tasking, especially, if one has to keep to the demands of hygiene and does not cut corners in using the necessary ingredients. The good thing about selling good kilishi, according to Umar, is that most often people buy kilishi from a particular location often return the next time, once they know they find quality, tasty kilishi there.
Speaking on the contribution kilishi can make to the economy, if it is effectively marketed internationally, Barrister Chijoke James, executive director of INGO Third Force Resource in Nigeria, explained the attraction of the product to his firm. According to him, it is true that the INGO Chairman visited Nigeria and came to the realization that the RMRDC-produced snacks are of high quality that could be marketed internationally.
Beyond that, however, “kilishi product is a multi-million pounds product when the market in the United Kingdom and Europe is fully developed, with capacity to provide diversified revenue streams for RMRDC, in addition to local job creation in the value chain in line with the Federal Government quest for diversification of the economy from oil”, James said.
For INGO Third Force Resource which has, over the years, promoted close economic development between institutions and companies in Africa and Europe, taking one more attractive product prospect to the international market in Europe is a worthy venture. It will not just further open the Nigerian economy, it will expand the snack options in the international market and they are confident, kilishi will gain many more converts.