French Firm to Support Establishment of Agribusiness Market in Oyo
A French firm, SEMMARIS-Rungis International Market, has indicated interest to support the establishment of an international wholesale agribusiness market in Oyo State.
The Head, International Projects of the firm, Timothée Witkowski and its Consultant-Market Specialist, Steve Allen, made this known on Wednesday in Ibadan when they led a delegation on a courtesy visit to Gov. Seyi Makinde.
Speaking with newsmen after the visit, Witkowski, said Oyo state has great potential and that its central location as well as efforts of the governor have made it a strategic location for the development of wholesale infrastructure for food supply in Nigeria.
“Oyo state is part of a strategy that we are currently implementing. We are intervening in the framework of the French Development Agency Funding Project.
“This is under a tripartite arrangement with IFD, SEMMARIS and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
“The outcome of this study is to basically draw a global strategy for developing wholesale infrastructure to supply products in Nigeria.”
According to him, the firm is currently working on three corridors; Kano and Kaduna states in the North; Port-Harcourt and Onitsha in the South-East and Lagos, Oyo states in the South-West corridor.
“Given the central location that Oyo state has on the global map of strategic flows of agriculture and also given the potential here; with nine million habitants in the state, we believe that it is a key strategic place for developing a strategic agriculture hub and a wholesale market.
“It is also in line with other efforts that have been carried out by the state to promote more competitive, more affordable and more sustainable agriculture.
“So, we are working in line with the strategy and are basically happy to put up the infrastructure in these locations.
“The Rungis Market is a wholesale market, which is located six to seven kilometres away from Paris, and is the biggest wholesale market in the world.
“We have about 12 billion Euro revenue per year for three million tonnes of products trading every year.
“We trade several types of products including fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, game, fish and seafood. We also trade in cheese and dairy products and flours.”
The Director-General, Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency (OYSADA), Dr Debo Akande, said that the firm planned to establish the market, which will be a major one for agribusiness and farmers.
Akande, who is also the Executive Adviser on Agribusiness to the governor, said
the move would complement the government’s efforts in the agribusiness sector.
He added that the investors had before the visit to the governor, gone round the state to see the infrastructure built by the state government in the last five years.
He said the places visited were the Fasola Agribusiness Industrial Hub, Bodija Market, Akinyele Market and others.
“So, we are anticipating that the growth of agribusiness and agriculture within our state will demand us to have a centralised system for the wholesale agricultural market.
“We are building and developing the foundation, and when things grow as we are building agricultural industrial hubs in different locations including Fasola, Eruwa, Ijaye, this will be needed,” Akande said.
On the benefits of such markets, Akande said “the direct benefit of the wholesale market to the people of the state is that the state is becoming highly industrialised.”
He added that it would also help to develop a systematic approach to what farmers in the state would be producing.
“If a big company wants to come and buy two million tonnes of cassava or yam packed, where will they be getting them from?
“Currently, they source from different farms and villages, but they will not need to do that any longer because most of these things will be centralised in a place where the farmers can sell them.
“The farmers will have companies to sell to and these companies can now sell to big companies, which is the concept behind wholesale.
“If you have a large company that is interested in using cashew, soya beans or process products as well, it knows the centralised place to come and pick in high volume.
“It is not now to go to different farms and villages to get 2 tonnes, 3 tonnes and what have you, and this means access to markets for our farmers. It means our farmers will now have access to sell their products at a good price,” he said. #French Firm to Support Establishment of Agribusiness Market in Oyo
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