Crown Flour Mills, a Nigerian subsidiary of multinational food and agribusiness company Olam International, has been granted permission by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment to import 500,000 mt of wheat from India.
The milling company has also received government support for its request, as the ministry has written to the High Commissioner of India in Abuja on its behalf to consider the business' importation request. Given the friendly relationship between the two countries and the Federal Government's support, the Indian High Commission has officially communicated the ministry's request to India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade.
CFM's Managing Director, Ashish Pande, said of the move to strengthen its wheat supply chain, "As a highly productive company and contributor to Nigeria's food security agenda, we strive consistently to provide affordable and healthy food for the populace."
"The disruption to the global wheat supply chain, combined with local challenges, necessitates immediate alternative actions." The Federal Government's approval will allow us to move forward with the arrangement to bridge the local wheat supply shortage." The recent US$200 million loan financing granted to CFM's parent company Olam Agri, the food, feed, and fibre agribusiness subsidiary of Singapore-based Olam Group, will aid in the project's completion.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the world's largest development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets, issued the financing package to enable Olam Agri to deliver millions of tonnes of staple foods to developing countries, potentially feeding over 40 million people at a time when food insecurity is at an all-time high.
The loan will be used to buy wheat, maize, and soy from Canada, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the United States, and other leading commodity suppliers for delivery to the company's processing operations and customers in developing countries that rely heavily on imports of these staple foods.
Nigeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Senegal, Thailand, and Turkey are among them. The project is part of the IFC's global efforts to combat food insecurity, particularly among poor and vulnerable populations who have been particularly hard hit by food inflation.
Food prices have risen significantly in the last two years, owing to the effects of COVID-19, adverse weather events, and the Ukrainian war. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of people experiencing food insecurity has increased year after year, with more than half of the world's countries experiencing a worsening situation.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, an estimated 928 million people were severely food insecure in 2020, an increase of 148 million from 2019.
"We are delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with IFC, which aligns with Olam Agri's focus on improving access to food and nutrition for the most vulnerable, as well as strengthening global food security," said N. Muthukumar, Olam Agri's Chief Executive Officer, Operations.
On a local level, CFM continues to play a role in the development of the wheat value chain in Nigeria through various intervention initiatives and massive investments under the auspices of the Seeds for the Future Programme as an organization and the Flour Milling Association of Nigeria (FMAN), Wheat Development Programme.
