By CHRIS OCHAYI & CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA – STAKEHOLDERS in the Palm Oil Industry, weekend, staged peaceful protest, to draw the attention of the Federal Government to some factors that militate against the development of the industry.

Among the issues raised, according to the Vanguard’s finding are: Waiver for importers, Tariff on importation, Development fund for palm oil industry, Infrastructure as well as Company Tax issues.

The Leader of the Coalition of Oil Palm Stakeholders Association, Mr. Moye Ladoja at a Protest Visit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Abuja, said that importation of over 24,000 metric tons of Palm Oil, annually, to the country just by eight companies calls for concern.

He maintained that massive importation of oil palm into the country under the ECOWAS Trade Liberation Scheme (ETLS) is a major threat to the huge investment of stakeholders, canvassing for strict application of 35% import duty to be carried out on palm oil importation to resuscitate the industry.

Ladoja called on the government to as a matter of urgency to withdraw waiver granted to some importers of palm oil, and exclude producers from paying company tax to scale up investment into the industry.

The groups also unanimously canvassed for the establishment of N100b development fund as bailout for the industry, while stressing the need to improve on infrastructure across the country.

His words, “As we speak, the oil palm industry is in distress, because the Nigeria government has not responded to the policy onslaughts of Malaysia and Indonesia. The policies are geared towards Nigeria patronizing them, for the country to attain self sufficiency in palm oil production.

“Since the first quarter of the year, we have witnessed increased important of crude palm oil and refined products into Nigeria, which had crashed the domestic trade. Our product system is well accustomed to the seasonality of production.

“The Peak and off seasons of production has only been marked by price differential. Never has it happened that local producers of palm oil system is well accustomed to the season Never has it happened that local producers of palm oil will not receive patronage in the Nigeria palm oil market.

“Today, local producers are holding on to unprecedented stocks, because prices have crashed and they are being forced to sell at ridiculously, low and unsustainable price levels. This is occasioned by the influx of cheap, subsidized palm oil from Asia.

“We need to put it on record that it is not illegitimate to import CPO into the country provided the appropriate duty is paid. However, we must recall that when the ban on the importation of CPO was lifted, the objective was to make the product more available as raw material for industrial processing and manufacture of downstream products.

“It is amazing to discover that the same companies that purportedly import CPO as raw material also engage in direct trade in the product. More disturbing is the rising importation of refined products, which is under ban in the guise of ‘crude palm olein’.

“The critical issues that we like to bring forth on this visit are two debilitating issues of waiver and CPO and olein imports through ETLS. These have become the two routes to killing our oil palm industry.

“We are disturbed that in spite of the assurances of Mr. President in his budget speech, certain individuals and companies are being given waiver to import CPO and olein.