Russia, Ukraine war will cause maize trafficking in Nigeria —Flour Mills’ CEO, Olusanya

The Chief Executive Officer of Flour Mills of Nigeria, Boye Olusanya, said Nigeria will experience trafficking of maize by producers in order to earn in foreign exchange amid the Russia and Ukraine war.

Olusanya made the statement to predict an impending scarcity of maize and wheat in the global market, including Nigeria, sharing the sentiment of Aliko Dangote, the founder of Dangote Group.

Ripples Nigeria had reported earlier that Dangote envisaged the volume of maize and fertilisers will drop due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, stating that the war will disrupt supply.

The richest man in Africa had suggested that the Federal Government places maize on list of items that shouldn’t be exported in order to forestall scarcity in the Nigerian market.

It was gathered that Russia and Ukraine account for 30% of the world’s urea and 26% of the world’s potash, which are essential fertilisers for maize. With the trade sanction against Russia and war in Ukraine, distribution will negatively impact on availability of maize and its price.

READ ALSO: How Russia, Ukraine war will affect Nigerians —IMF

Olusanya explained this in a report by The Cable on Friday, “The reality is that Russia and Ukraine are number one and number five in wheat production, and if you take that volume, which is almost one-third of global production, there would be an immediate impact on prices.” he said.

With maize and wheat being interchangeable, the CEO of FMN said the disruption will affect production for over a year to 18 months, which will snowball into “cross-border trafficking of maize, more farmers will look into taking maize out of the country.”

He explained that, “When you look at all that and what then happens in pricing, obviously, if we don’t manage this well, there will be significant volume compression, in terms of material that comes in and therefore the volume of food that is sold.”

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