Norsworthy oil palms set to revive Delta agric sector
The groundbreaking of 3,000-hectare (ha) oil palm plantation and processing plant owned by Norsworthy Farms, has taken place at Akwukwu-Igbo, Delta State.In his speech at the ceremony, Ogbechie hinted that the country currently consumes an estimated 2.7m metric tonnes of palm oil with estimated demand-supply gap ranging from one million mt to 1.7million, noting that with the shortfall, there is room for additional investment.
Thus Norsworthy management has set the stage for the cultivation of a 3,000-ha plantation with a 10-tonnes per hour palm oil processing mill and a vegetable oil refinery for producing palm kernel and palm kernel cake for animal feeds.
Palm oil is a key ingredient in the production of several items, which include soap, cosmetics, biscuits, pharmaceuticals, margarine, detergent, lubricants, candles, feed stock and many more.
In 2014, the global palm oil market demand was estimated at 74m mt and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicted that global demand for palm oil would double by 2020 and triple by 2050.Currently, about N700b worth of investment is required for the country to achieve self-sufficiency in palm oil production and according to available statistics, over two million hectare of the product is required to bridge the current supply deficit.
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