OGADINMA MORDI is the Managing Director of Agricorp international, an agricultural processing and exporting company in this interview with GBEMI FAMINU, speaks about the challenges encountered in exporting agro-products, plans to boost the country’s non-oil profile, and opportunities available in the agribusiness ecosystem. Excerpts:
Nigerian exports have suffered obstacles particularly in terms of quality, what factors have been largely responsible for these quality issues in Nigerian agro exports?
The low output and quality of Nigerian agro-export are attributable to the fact that most of the production is undertaken by smallholder farmers’ with old traditional production techniques. These smallholder farmers have poor agricultural pricing policies, low access to credit, low and uncertain research funding, these affect their ability to meet international standards on food safety and animal and plant health standards.
What significant challenges has Agricorp encountered in the export of commodities and how were these issues managed?
Some core challenges include low quality farm produce, lack of trust in the value chain, outdated agricultural systems, absence of value additions and the involvement of too many middlemen in the agricultural value chain.
Another problem is the ability to get the product to our customers quickly, we transport by road and ship out of Lagos or Rivers State, and delays at the port can sometimes last for months. This is also one of the major reasons for our expansion to Southern Africa (Zambia) to help meet the timelines with our customers in the region.
We manage this issue using our proprietary technology, Osisi Farmbase to register, aggregate, and pay farmers for produce sold. This technology also helps us track and give real-time updates on the progress of the goods exported.
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How has Agricorp managed agricultural hiccups which affect production volume especially insecurity and infrastructure deficit?
Insecurity has been a very massive issue for most businesses in the agricultural space, most companies have implemented similar security protocols and maintained close relationships with the security infrastructure of the states.
In addition, we have derisked our systems by putting in place the right covers by way of insurance policies (GIT, Plant and Equipment cover, warehouse and inventory, machine breakdown, etc).
Infrastructure deficit is a major bane for most businesses, the roads are horrible and cost of transportation has gone up 300 percent in the last 3-5 months, power is another headache while we try to solve this by providing alternatives, the government needs to do more in providing these necessary amenities to help businesses thrive and also attract more investments.
What should we expect from Agricorp over the next short to medium term especially in terms of business expansion and location expansion?
We started the business by selling fresh commodities to the local market on the product side, we built up some capital and moved to primary processed products, such as the dried and split ginger. The next step is moving into secondary processed products, such as ginger powder, and then towards packaged, branded, and differentiated products.
We aim to maximize the global spices and commodities market from multiple locations. Now we have increased the company’s capacity to 7,000 metric tons of ginger and our ginger production program will commence aggressively in Zambia by November 2022.
What other avenue is Agricorp looking at to boost Nigeria’s export profile and boost the economy?
In 2021 we branched into poultry, acquiring four million poultry birds capacity for $10 million, we conducted a successful pilot phase and are now ramping up operations in the division of Agricorp.
With this we have developed an entrepreneurship program for youths to acquire skills in agriculture and be gainfully employed. It also sees the Inclusion of women as agri-prenuers in the industry.
What plans does Agricorp have to trade with other African countries possibly with the use of free trade platforms?
We have commenced our pan-African expansion already starting with Zambia, with this, we can coordinate production of some of our products from West and Southern Africa. With Nigeria, we are able to leverage on ECOWAS regimes and with Zambia we leverage on SADC and COMESA. With the eventual implementation of AFCTA, we would have been well positioned to take advantage of our experience coordinating trade across over 35 countries.
