The Nigerian commodities market player, AFEX has projected an average decline in production of up to 11.5 per cent across commodities like maize, paddy rice, sorghum, and cocoa.
AFEX revealed this on Wednesday during the unveiling of its ‘2022 wet season crop production report’. It, however, forecasted that soybeans and sesame would experience about 6.5 per cent increase in production levels.
The report was released in a hybrid event hosted at the AFEX office in Abuja and it sought to provide accurate reliable data to aid the understanding of the national food system through farmer survey measurement of transaction level.
According to the report, Nigeria’s most consumed grains were currently faced with declining food balance sheets as consumption levels rose than production levels, thereby worsening food insecurity.
The report tracked data from six key commodities and their performance in the preceding season. The commodities are maize, paddy, soybeans, cocoa, sesame and sorghum.
It noted that price and market changes across maize paddy, sorghum, soybean, cocoa and sesame had been affected both by predictable seasonal effects and activities in the agricultural value chain as well as larger macroeconomics and events.
Speaking on the data while presenting the report’s findings, AFEX’s Head of Market Data and Research, David Ibidapo, said that higher prices were forecasted across all commodities in the report.
