Nigeria’s ginger export down 74% on low output

…As blight disease ravages farms

Ginger exports from Nigeria declined by 74 percent in nine months of 2024 as tuber rot disease ravaged farmlands and ruined output, according to the official data.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) foreign trade data show that Nigeria’s ginger exports declined 74 percent to N6.28 billion in nine months of 2024 from N23.76 billion in the corresponding period of 2023.

Amid a weaker currency exchanging at over N1500/$ in 2024, the naira value of the ginger exports should have exceeded the 2023 value, but the tuber rot disease, also known as the blight disease, ensured that this did not happen.

Experts say the value will further decline in 2025 as research institutes mandated to supervise tuber crops have failed to find a solution to the disease outbreak.

Ginger has become a top-notch cash crop in Nigeria and is one of the commodities targeted by the federal government to revamp the Nigerian economy and boost exports.

Huge loss to farmers

Florence Edwards, president of the Ginger Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (GGPMAN), said exports of the commodity are declining owing to the disease outbreak ravaging farms.

“Our output is fast declining owing to the disease outbreak and this is affecting exports. When there is no ginger to plant, there’ll be no ginger to export,” Edwards told BusinessDay from her Abuja farm.

Read also: Ginger price jumps six-fold on blight disease

She noted that the majority of ginger seeds in the country have been recycled for over 20 years, saying that after harvest the same disease-prone seeds are replanted, which explains why the disease has been recurrent.

“The ginger seeds we plant are over 20 years old. We replant and take seeds from those same plants and then replant again,” she explained.

The exporter further said that she has nothing to ship out this season as her farm suffered from the disease attack last year. “As of today, we have nothing to export this year,” she said.

Similarly, Joy Bolus, a ginger farmer in Kaduna, who invested over N1 million in ginger cultivation last year, in partnership with her husband, recorded a huge loss as the farm was completely destroyed by the disease outbreak.

“My husband and I lost over N800, 000 last year from out farm owing to the ginger blight disease,” Bolus said in response to questions.

“I have lost everything. I can’t even do anything anymore, nothing to show for all my efforts,” she said.

Attempts by the federal government to control the outbreak have yielded no results, as farmers continue to count their losses, particularly in Kaduna and Kano, the two major ginger growers.

Sabi Abdullahi, minister of state for Agriculture and Food Security, revealed that ginger farmers have lost over N12 billion to the epidemic since 2023.

In October 2023, the Nigerian government provided ginger farmers with N1.6 billion to support the affected farmers and distributed pesticides and fungicides to farmers in several key growing states, hoping to bring respite.

However, experts believe that what the country needs are disease-resistant seeds that can withstand attacks of the fungus, and not more pesticides and herbicides.

BusinessDay earlier reported that the price of ginger jumped six times in two years, rising from N50, 000 per bag in 2023 to N300,000 in 2025.

Farmers attribute the price hike to low supply created by the devastating effects of the 2023 ginger blight disease, which resulted in N12 billion losses for Nigerian farmers.

Although budgetary allocation to the National Agricultural Seeds Council increased by 36 percent to N3.8 billion in 2025 from N2.8 billion in 2024, farmers still lack access to quality seeds and seedlings.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Nigeria is among the world’s largest producers of ginger, churning out about 781,000 metric tons annually as of 2023. But with recurrent ginger blight disease, the country might lose its global ginger position.

Nigeria exports ginger to mainly Middle Eastern and European markets.

“What our farmers need are new seeds that are disease-resistant. We also need to treat the soil, as that’s where the disease starts from,” Edwards stressed.