According to reports, Nigeria’s ginger exports had dropped from N26.2 billion in 2023 to zero by the end of 2025, The ginger farms were hit hard by a fungal disease that destroyed crops in Kaduna, Plateau, and Nasarawa states.
A ginger farmer, Mr Jerry Tobi Olanrewaju said, “Ginger farming in Nigeria has become nearly impossible due to The Ginger Blight fungal infections like rhizome rot and bacterial wilt, which have devastated yields.
Olanrewaju noted the issues facing farmers, including the high cost of production. He noted that globally, it costs about $2,000 to $3,000 to produce one metric ton of ginger, but in Nigeria, the cost is about $100,000. Other issues include the high cost of seeds and declining yields, as farmers lose 90 per cent of their crops to disease outbreaks.
Pathogens like Pyricularia zingiberis caused massive losses over N12 billion, driving up domestic prices to N15.2 million per ton and making exports unviable as buyers shifted to Ethiopia, India, and China. Thousands of farmers faced ruin, while the country now imports lower-quality ginger. Experts blame old seeds and poor surveillance, bandits and herdsmen including GMOs, and call for resistant varieties and better support to revive the sector.
Nigeria once a dominant exporter, is now losing its market share to India and China etc, which are now expanding into Nigeria’s traditional export destinations. He warned that this threat poses risks to national security and could lead to massive rural-to-urban migration. Before the crisis, the country was producing an estimated 523,000 metric tons of ginger annually. At $2,500 per ton, Nigeria’s ginger industry was worth $1.3 billion annually in the global market.
