One hundred trucks conveying 4,000 tonnes of onion have reportedly left Sokoto for other African countries in the aftermath of the recent crisis at Shasa.
The crisis in Shasa reportedly led to the death of 27 onion dealers while 14 trucks were razed.
However, the National President of Onion Producers and Marketers, Aliyu Isa, denied that the decision to export the products resulted from the recent Shasa crisis.
DailyTrust Saturday learnt that this was the first documented onion export witnessed in the country.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony, which took place at Illela border post, Isa noted that the world witnessed a global onion crisis due to the outbreak of purple blotch and Downey mildew in 2019 and the challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He added that in Nigeria, the situation was further complicated by the flooding of 2020, which made it challenging to attain annual onion domestic demands.
According to him, Nigeria produces 1.4 million metric tonnes of onion every year and exports it to all African countries, except Egypt and the Niger Republic.
He said that before now, they were spending not less than N1 million to export their products through the informal way, but now that they have officially documented it, they would spend only N100,000.
In his remarks, the comptroller of Customs in charge of Sokoto and Zamfara states, Alhaji Abdulhameed Ma’aji, said they had provided advanced solutions to ease the exportation of made in Nigeria products.
Also speaking, Alhaji Ahmed Yahya, head of the Export Promotion Council in Sokoto, described the development as a giant lift and great feat because many informal exports were taking place along the axis.
