A mini food fair to showcase the rich delicacies known with Akwa Ibom State is underway.
The Nigeria Agribusiness and Agriculture Development Initiative, organisers of the proposed food fair, added that it would be part of the second edition of the Agribusiness Roundtable Conference billed for December 11-13, 2022
The South-South coordinator of the programme, Mr. Howard Usen, disclosed on Monday the theme of the conference is ‘Thriving in a Dwindling Economy’.
Usen said Afang soup is vastly eaten everywhere across the globe, adding that there is the need to showcase this area that the state is known for with the intention of exporting it
He said “another component of the second edition of the Agribusiness Roundtable Conference is the mini food fair. Anywhere you go people always say ‘Calabar Kitchen’. So we are trying to organise a mini food fair that will showcase the rich delicacies that Akwa Ibom State is known for.
He described the theme of the conference as unique in view of the depressed economy occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Usen noted that the Russia-Ukraine war preceded the COVID-19 pandemic and affected every country, adding that there was a need for organisations and individuals to find solutions and develop new approaches to survive and move forward.
He said besides the conference, plans had also been concluded to launch the centre for Innovative and Sustainable Agriculture which would serve as a business hub for the South-South and South-East region.
According to Uwen, the centre would be to the region where the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture is to the South-West.
He said, “We also have a launching of the Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Agriculture. We found out that in the whole of South-South and South-East there is no such organisation.
“The centre will utilise untapped potentials of agriculture in the area where Nigeria South-South region and environs have comparative advantage such as seafood, vegetables, palm oil and cassava whose processing for local consumption and export will generate substantial revenue.”
“A fully established centre for innovative and sustainable agriculture would be the leading seat of innovative solutions in value addition to locally produced goods and indeed serve as a major hub in the South-East and South-South regions.”
