Okon Bassey in Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State government has expressed optimism that it would meet the December 2022 target of planting at least two million coconut trees in the state to feed the state coconut refinery.
The state government gave the assurance to dispel the fears that the multi billion Naira St Gabriel Coconut Oil Refinery in Mkpat Enin Local Council might be under utilised due to inadequate coconut fruits to meet up its two million coconut per day refining capacity.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Offiong Offor, gave the clarification while fielding questions from journalists in Uyo during the weekend.
Offor explained that more than one million hybrid seedlings have already been planted in the last six years at various locations across the state in a renewed effort to meet the demands of the refinery.
According to the commissioner, new plantations have been established in Okobo, Ini and Eket to compliment the main plantation sandwiched between Eastern Obolo/Mkpat Enin/Ikot Abasi LGGs.
He said that an initiative aimed at encouraging the growing of the plant in public secondary schools have been expanded to public primary schools, local government councils and traditional rulers council.
“Already we have done more than half of the two million and so the fraction that is remaining is not so much and we have plantations in different parts of the state.
“We have in Mkpat Enin/Eastern Obolo and Ikot Abasi. We also have in Eket, Okobo and the recently commissioned one in Ini Local Council. So we are going to meet with that target by the end of the year, we don’t have any fears about the target.
“I have heard people say the plantations are not doing well, but they are. Some of them have been adjudged to be the best in Nigeria, better than the one in Lagos. Even the Nigerian Quarrantine Service adjudged the plantations in Akwa Ibom to be the best and with the best variety of coconut you can find anywhere in the world.
“But we have to thank the governor for his vision of raising the raw materials base for the refinery because when the plantations start fruiting we won’t have issues feeding that factory.
“Just like a baby when she is birthed, she must sit, crawl before she can stand on her feet, so people should not have fears that we will not have raw materials to feed that factory.
“You should also know that before that factory was established, feasibility was carried out and things were put in place to ensure that we meet up with the demand for that factory.
“So we should applaud Governor Udom Emmanuel’s vision for agriculture in the state because he has laid down things that Akwa Ibomites will use to leverage in the future,” she explained.
According to her, the coconut oil refinery has already commenced refining at a limited scale using fruits from the main plantation and private growers who had earlier embraced the coconut initiative when it was launched some years ago.
The refinery, Offor said, was meant to attain full production capacity in phases because the plantations were undertaken in phases and expected not to fruit at the same time while the state would realise the full benefits of the investment in later years as coconut remained one of the most economically viable cash crops.
“The trees are already fruiting. These trees were planted in batches and if any of them have issues you replace them. So some have started fruiting and others will fruit when they get to maturity, so they will not all fruit at the same time.
“And then the factory is producing coconut oil but not on a large scale currently because it takes a while to set up a factory of that magnitude because you have to do all your Ys and cross your Ts, like getting certification from all the different agencies.
“It is a process. Commissioning means that we have completed the building, so production is done on a small scale currently,” the commissioner stated.
