Morocco's strawberry production [Business Africa]

An international strawberry festival in Morocco celebrates a record high harvest this year in the north African country.

The harvest is expected to reach nearly 200,000 tonnes, up from 180,000 tonnes in previous years, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

In Nigeria, structural barriers, poor visibility and inadequate support from the government leads to a revenue loss of about $ 300 million annually in the leather skin industry.

It is quite disappointing that the government has not been able to take advantage of this opportunity to make sure that the demand is properly harvested through having downstream leather processing facilities in Nigeria.

According to a local think tank, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group macroeconomic outlook for 2019, this affirms the need for value addition in the country’s leather value chain.

The think tank said the industry could rake in some $ 1 billion dollars in 2015, but regrets this could likely be missed in a nation that exports raw hides and skins including semi-processed leather.

We speak to Femi Awofala, Head of Manufacturing Policy Commission at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group on how this can be tackled.