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High demand for Nigerian charcoal in EU countries

By on October 11, 2013

Bende Export-Import Limited, a subsidiary of Slok Group, says Nigerian charcoal is in high demand among EU countries because they are of good quality, easy to light and can burn for a long time. Benjamin Kalu, MD/CEO, Bende Export Limited, who disclosed this during a round table discussion organised by the company for exporters in the country, said EU countries like Belgium, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom, etc are biggest buyers of Nigerian charcoal.

According to him, his company has been exporting on average 200-300 containers of hardwood charcoal per month to buyers in    EU, adding, “EU customers want charcoal that is compliant with quality control in terms of size and moisture content. Exporter must comply or lose money.”

He lamented that there are not as many Nigerians in the export business as importers and most of exporters do not last more than one or two years in the business and they fizzle out. In order to address this problem, he said his company has kicked off a campaign aimed at grooming one million new generation of genuine exporters over the next three years.  “My focus is to groom a new generation of exporters; men and women of integrity who can make money for themselves and the country through foreign exchange.

“We are working hard to achieve this target in the next three years and the strategy we want to apply is training the trainers. We want to do this programme in the 36 states of the federation including Abuja, the federal capital territory. It is going to be moving from place tom place and it will be quarterly,” he said

He said that the move was his company’s response to  drive by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, to boost the country’s exporters base, noting: “Nigeria  is the least when it comes to non-oil export according to the ranking by the World Trade Organisation, WTO.

Kalu, a lawyer turned exporter, said: “That spurred me into action and I said: we have to do something about that for non-oil export because Nigeria has been a mono economy depending on oil.

“We are looking forward to partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Ministry of Agric, and the NEPC as one of the training organization; not only training but also finding exporters contracts, support and mentor them and see that we break the gap between the suppliers and the importers,” he said.

 

 

[Vanguard]