Nigeria targets 5,760 tonnes yam export in 2018
Nigeria has set a target of about 5,760 tonnes of yams for export in 2018 as part of a programme to boost yam export and increase the country’s foreign exchange earnings through agriculture, the Technical Committee on Nigeria Yam Export Programme has said. Professor Simon Irtwange, Chairman of the committee, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja said requests for the monthly supply of five containers has already been received from the United States which amounted to 120 tonnes of yams monthly and 1,440 tonnes of yams in a year. He said, “If everything works out well, the US authorities say they will need about five containers every month and one container contains 24 tonnes of yams. We are trying to aggregate the demand from other countries; so by the time we put everything together, we should be thinking of exporting about 20 containers of yams on a monthly basis.” Going by this projection, the committee hopes to export a total of 480 tonnes of yams every month which t...