The National President, Pineapple Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Etsano, has described pineapple as black gold with a lot of potentials and capacity to boost economic growth and development.
Mr Etsano, who stated this in an exclusive interview with newsmen in Abuja, said that what the association needed now is some form of certification to ease export of the fruit.
“It may interest you to know that one of the most sought after products in the world are fresh fruits and vegetables”.
The President of the pineapple association, whose members cut across, called on the government to come up with a road map on how to drive the sector further and compete internationally, adding that countries like Ghana and Cote d’ Voire have agencies set up to monitor export.
The association is also a member of MSME Forum, an umbrella body of Medium and Small scale enterprises in Nigeria
“Nigeria is the 6th highest pineapple producer in the world. This is made possible by members’ efforts and contributions. When we want to export, whenever you use any of the banned chemicals for farm inputs, when such fruits get to foreign countries and investigation is carried out on the fruit and some of the banned elements are found in your produce, everything will be discarded. You even have to pay to get it destroyed.”
Mr Godwin Etsano appealed for funding of the sector through various loans and interventions from government and agencies to enable producers of pineapple meet up with the certification for export of the commodity.