The global food market valued at over $7tr in 2022 has been projected to hit $10tr by the year 2027.
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President of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST), Professor Joseph Oneh Abu, who stated this in Abia State, while addressing a press conference at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, hinged the projection on population growth and changing dietary trends.

At the press conference, which kicked off the NIFST 47th annual conference with the theme: “Nigerian foods for the global market,” he said the three day conference will bring experts from food industry, government, academia and civil society to discuss the opportunities and challenges in bringing Nigerian foods to global market, predicting, however, that “challenges such as non-compliance to global food standards and food safety regulations, could constitute barriers to optimal export of Nigerian foods.”

According to him, the conference theme was deliberately chosen to reflect the entrepreneurial spirit of Abia and the need to critically evaluate and proffer workable solutions to the impediments to Nigerian foods’ competitiveness in the global space.

While he gave the NIFST numerical membership as 6,000 with about 3,500 registered companies, he disclosed that over the past 47 years, NIFST mission, which he said is “to harness the abundance of talent, knowledge, and skill among food professionals in Nigeria towards sufficiency and good nutrition of the masses,” is being achieved progressively through research, workshops, seminars and conferences.

He said “as a body NIFST is committed to promoting global acceptance of Nigerian foods and believes that Nigerian foods have the potential to compete at the international market, hence NIFEST would not to relent until the current unpleasant situation where Nigeria imports more than three times the value of foods she exports is reversed.

Prof. Abu described establishment of NAFDAC as a good thing for the country, saying through their partnership, NIFST identified all registered food companies, adding that insecurity, poor funding, and inadequate infrastructures, among others as some of their challenges.
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