As part of efforts to encourage value addition and curbing the problem of egg glut in the poultry sector, the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has brought experts in the sector together to deliberate on the promotion of egg powder production, marketing, and utilization.
Declaring the Consultative Forum, with the theme “Promoting Sustainable Egg Processing and Utilization for Food and Nutrition Security in Nigeria,” open in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said huge amount of Nigerian’s 21 billion annual egg production goes to waste for lack of value addition.
According to him, report has it that, less than 5% of the country’s egg powder demand is met by local production.
“A huge percentage of the demand is met by importation thereby spending about one billion dollars ($1B) annually on importation of egg powder alone. The bright side of this is that there is a huge investment potential locally with regards to egg powder processing. To this effect, Government will continue to support science, technology and indigenous innovation in the industry, and also provide incentives to actors in the poultry value chain.
He therefore called on the participants to come up with doable recommendations that will serve as a blue print that will not only address the challenges of a critical aspect of the poultry value chain, (egg glut), through egg powder processing, but also, the seeming inadequate awareness of the consumers on the existence, benefits and utilization of egg powder.
