Nigeria’s trade with Russia suffers major fall

Nigeria imported durum wheat worth N753.6 billion in the first nine months of 2022, a 16.1% decline compared to N898.2 billion worth of durum wheat importation during the comparable period in 2021.

This is according to data gathered from Nigeria’s international trade reports, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The decline in Nigeria’s wheat import may be attributed to the continuous confrontation between Russia and Ukraine since February 2022, as most of Nigeria’s wheat import comes from these two countries.

The decline in Nigeria’s wheat import is of particular interest considering how much Nigerians consume wheat. Notably, wheat is the third most widely consumed gain in the country. It is used in the production of bread, livestock feeds amongst others. The CBN said:

“Wheat is the third most widely consumed grain in Nigeria after maize and rice. It is estimated that the country only produces about 1% (63,000 metric tons) of the 5-6 million metric tons of the commodity consumed annually in Nigeria. This enormous demand-supply gap is bridged with over $2 billion spent annually on wheat importation. This has made wheat the second highest contributor to the country’s food import bill.”

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However, despite this enormous demand for wheat in the country, its import has dropped in the past nine months, especially at a time when the nation’s agricultural import surged to N512.91 billion in Q3 2022 and N1.42 trillion between January and September 2022.

Russia, which plays a very important role in international trade has been in a confrontation with neighbour Ukraine over the past 10 months, after Vladimir Putin, the President ordered the invasion of his troops into Ukrainian territories.

In addition, Russia which is a regular on the list of Nigeria’s international trading partners has fallen off the list in recent times.

A cursory analysis of the data from the NBS showed that Nigeria imported goods worth N813.19 billion between January and September 2021.

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However, in 2022, Russia failed to make the list of top import sources for Nigeria. Meanwhile, a further perusal of the NBS report showed Nigeria imported frozen seafood worth N1.19 billion in Q3 2022 and sulpture valued at N517.9 million in the same period.