Nigeria is considering banning imports of fruit in a new step to boost farming and protect local industry, says President Olusegun Obasanjo.
"This administration is determined to make noticeable progress in the production of tropical fruits, particularly pineapples, bananas, mangoes, tomatoes, papaya and avocado," the Nigerian leader said.
Obasanjo said Nigeria can be self sufficient in tropical fruits and even become a major exporter over the next year.
Nigeria banned the import of packaged fruit juices in 2003, a step that has led to a boom in the local juice processing industry.
Before then, Nigeria imported large quantities of fruit juices in retail packs from Europe and South Africa.
The ban was one of a long list of measures introduced by Obasanjo since 2002 to revive farming and food processing industries neglected since oil became Nigeria's mainstay export in the 1970s.
The measures included a 120 percent duty hike on rice imports.
The tariff was slashed to 50 percent this year after complaints by the Rice Millers, Importers and Distributors of Nigeria that smugglers had illegally imported 449 070 tons from neighbouring Benin in 10 months to evade customs duty.
Nigeria, which is the world's biggest importer of parboiled rice, mainly from Thailand and India, saw a 50 percent drop in rice imports last year to one million tons, thanks to rising local production. - Reuters