President, National Soursop Producers Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Sylvester Danjuma, says soursop fruit has forex potential if well harnessed in Nigeria.
Danjuma expressed this view while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of commodities stakeholders meeting on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, with good investments, adequate resources for cultivation of seedlings and enabling environment, the commodity will thrive, while thousands of youths will be employed across the value chain.
“In exploring the value chain in soursop industry, from the value chain to the producer, processor and down to the marketer is an income chain.
“You will find that a tree of soursop can yield about 75 to 80 fruits; that same number of soursop fruits can make juice drinks; it can be processed into tea and used for medicine.
“Imagine you sell a piece for 1000 naira and maybe you have ten trees in your compound that yields 75 to 80 fruits; you will be making millions of naira without going anywhere and that alone is capable of boosting the economy.
“People are suffering from different kinds of illnesses but if you take soursop, everything about the fruit from the leaf down to the root are medicinal.’’
He said there were some other things produced with soursop like the soursop tea, soursop cake and even soursop supplements.
“Soursop is capable of stopping all kinds of illnesses like malaria but the research is still ongoing and after the research it will be produced and we want other private sectors to come in so that we can grow the sector.
“This is because it is a very viable sector that everyone needs to invest in; soursop is a tree that can be from within your compound.’’
He called on the government to give the industry conducive environment to thrive and become a major source of forex for the economy; stressing on the need for government’s intervention on provision of antifungals and chemicals
According to him, soursop needs antifungals and chemicals to help the seedlings grow.
“The industry is a very good one for everyone to come on board; we are saying this so that we will have lots of people to come and invest in soursop and enjoy the inexhaustible benefits,” he said. (NAN)
