Thread by @femolevsky

Okay, tonight we will be talking about the Edible oils industry in Nigeria.

Thread.

Edible oils refers to oils that can be ingested. We use oils for a variety of things, but most especially, for heat transfer; from the "fire/heat source", to an object or food item requiring indirect heat.

The oil we ingest is very important, for a variety of reasons. Top of the list is Health, followed closely by FITNESS. However, fitness can not really be discussed without health. Here are some major oils consumed in Nigeria: Palm, palm kernel, groundnut, soya, castor, etc.

Many shoppers do not really inspect the bottles of the cooking oil they buy, they just pick one off the shelf and use. But if you take some time to look at the bottle, you will notice, not all brands have the same source of raw material for their cooking oil.

Cooking oil, also called vegetable oil is gotten from several sources as shared above, but mostly from the fruit of the palm and soya.

Malaysia is one the world's largest suppliers of vegetable oil, from Palm oil. But we know where they got their Palm fruit from......Nigeria.

In Nigeria, our edible oils industry is largely import dependent and under developed. We still consume most of our palm oil directly as "epo pupa" (- yoruba for "red oil"), while we import all the foreign brands of vegetable oil, refined from "red oil".

You see, what you buy as "vegetable oil" is actually mostly oil produced from refining Palm oil or any of the other seed oils. If you check the side of the bottle, you will see something like "refined palm olein". Palm olein is gotten from Palm oil, after impurities and....

.....colour has been removed. Also, in Palm oil, there are some by - products not needed by the body, present within. This is why palm oil "sleeps". That part of the oil that causes it to sleep is removed, in the refining process, leaving you with that golden stable oil.

As with Nigeria, a lot of factors have led to the under development of the industry. First, GOVERNMENT! As always, no. 1 culprit. Over the years, trade policies have favoured imported oils, versus locally available ones. Also, the lack of investment in infrastructure - Power.

3. The land use act. Property acquisition, in terms of large plantations, have become very difficult to near impossible, only for the upper echelon.

4. Smuggling
5. Fake, adulterated oil....Yes. By this I mean oil that has either been mixed or blended.

Malaysia decided to protect their industry in the early 90s, they made laws that specified that crude Palm oil (red oil) will not be exported. Anyone needing oil had to buy Refined oil from them, meaning you had to refine locally, in Malaysia.

Anyone caught paid dearly for it. Refineries were set up, companies started producing in Malaysia. We know the story. Nigerians now go there, buy refined oil, mix with with a by-product called PFAD at sea and import it as something now called "Crude olein".

This is because government put a ban on the importation of refined cooking oil, at the height of the agric revolution - date unsure. They then bring it in, separate same, and sell to the unsuspecting masses. This in itself is not that harmful, health wise, but def economically.

This is because we lose all the associated value that comes from refining locally, just like petroleum refining. Also, these "importers" sell their products at a price lower than that refined locally, obviously, to poach the market and kill competition.

From Palm oil, many products are gotten; Refined bleached deodorised Palm oil, process fatty acid (used in soap making), stearin - (hard edible products; candy etc), cooking oil - refined palm olein. Losing these valuable products and by-products is costly.

GDP growth is not rocket science, is in the value created by things as little as this. Value is in all these things we neglect, domiciling these valuable commodities is what translates to +ve GDP figs at FY reporting. But in Nigeria......?

My advice - Proritse the local production/refining of cooking oil, as well as all the sub sectors that feed off the edible oils industry, e.g. soap making. Start processing cocoa locally to derive chocolate, which will use these by-products, completing the business circle.

We can do it, Malaysia has done it, using Palm fruits gotten from Nigeria. It's not too late to start. The successes with rice can be replicated in this edible oils industry. Instead of consuming stale imported oils, we can buy fresh locally refined oils.

Cheers..

God Bless Nigeria.

Cooking Oil Industry thread.

☝️👆☝️👆☝️👍👍👍👏👏