Demand for sorghum in Nigeria is expected to grow as industrial buyers such as grain millers and beverage makers tap into the potential of locally produced raw material for feedstock.
Projections show consumption of sorghum for food, seed, and industrial (FSI) purposes, as well as for animal feed and other residual uses remains high, a trend likely to be sustained in the short to medium term according to international and local analysts.
Globally, the demand for sorghum, especially the sweet variety, is on the rise as industrialists look for affordable, accessible and more sustainable raw materials to produce biofuels.
In Nigeria, leading brewing company Nigeria Breweries (NB) – owned partly by Heineken – said in a previous financial report it continues to invest in local development, improvement, and commercialization of its agricultural raw materials including sorghum in collaboration with relevant local and international research institutions.
The company, which says there has been an increased demand for locally grown sorghum, especially between 2016 and 2021 when the brewer’s demand for the grain stood at 120,000 tons annually, spent an estimated US$ 48.4 million “in investigating and cultivating locally sourced raw materials with success obtained in sorghum, sorghum maltose syrup, and cassava extracts.”
Moreover, NB recently built a fully functional malting plant in Nigeria with capacity to process 35,000 tons of raw sorghum into malted sorghum, another driver in the growth of demand for the grain.
The beverage company has also developed a maltose syrup production plant with a capacity to process 10,000 tons of raw sorghum into malted syrup according to a previous company report that also said NB has since 2019 “stepped up significantly on import substitution with high maltose syrup using locally produced sorghum maltose syrup.”
Furthermore, the Nigerian brewer says it intends to increase the positive impact of local sourcing of its agricultural raw materials by expanding its sorghum cultivation and sourcing areas to new farming communities.
Other players in the beverage industry, and therefore consumers of locally produced sorghum include Guinness Nigeria Brewery, and AB inBev that make the Nigerian brewing industry Africa’s second largest after South Africa.
Ticking upward demand for quality sorghum is also likely to be influenced by the recent move announced by Swiss multinational plant equipment manufacturer Bühler Holding AG to invest in a grain processing innovation center in Nigeria to catalyze increased use of locally produced grains including sorghum.
Bühler’s Grain Processing Innovation Center (GPIC), the company said previously “pioneers a shift towards utilizing locally grown crops and ancient grains, which are abundant in Nigeria and Africa.”
“With Nigeria alone boasting an impressive annual production of over 20 million metric tons of grains, including sorghum, millet, beans, and pulses, along with more than 60 million metric tons of locally grown crops like cassava, the potential for local grain utilization is immense,” Bühler added.
The center, the company said, will function “as a research and development hub specialized on locally grown crops and ancient grains and as a training center, with a comprehensive training program to empower food processors across the region.”
“With the versatile setup and a spirit of collaboration, the GPIC is equipped to transform these raw materials into a diverse array of final products. From pasta to biscuits, wafers to noodles, the possibilities are boundless,” Buhler added.
Demand on the rise
Overall, Nigeria’s FSI consumption of sorghum is estimated to have risen to 6.9 million metric tons in 2024, up from 6.3 million metric tons the previous year. A similar surge was reported in sorghum for animal feed and other residual uses that doubled to 2 million metric tons from 1 million metric tons for the same period.
Despite the potential of increased investment in industrial expansion, Nigeria’s sorghum offering locally and in West African market attracts low prices with the country posting the lowest price at US$ 319 per a metric ton in the six months to March 2025. This was much lower than the US$ 603 per metric ton in neighbouring Togo, another sorghum producer in West Africa, according to a market update by AGRA. Nigeria’s sorghum prices declined by 31.1% from January to March 2025.
For Nigeria’s sorghum consumption demand to be met, both the government and private players in the grain’s value chain, such as the sorghum National Association of Sorghum Producers, Processors and Marketers of Nigeria under the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria, are collaborating to ramp up output in producer States including Plateau, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Benue , Kogi, Nasarawa, and Taraba, all known to have variations of a hot and dry climate.
According to Nigeria sorghum market analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Nigeria’s sorghum production has increased to 6.9 million metric tons in the first quarter of 2025, up from the 6.4 million metric tons in 2023. This is despite existential downside in Nigeria’s sorghum production such as inadequate knowledge of smallholder farmers about suitable agronomic practices and prevalent circulation and use of low-quality seeds mainly those reused from harvested grains.
USDA projects further increases in production for the 2024-25 marketing year to 7.2 million metric tons “partly influenced by the expected increase in area planted due to the growing demand of sorghum as an industrial raw material in the brewing and milling industries.”
Sorghum’s appeal to farmers
An increase in the cost of producing alternative grains such as corn and rice has also swayed more farmers into sorghum farming because of its relative low-maintenance and drought-resistant qualities, making it suitable for northern farmers. USDA projects acreage for sorghum production to increase to 6.1 million hectares from 5.7 million hectares the previous year.
USDA also reports that yield per hectare slightly increased from 1.12 metric tons per hectare in 2023-24 to 1.13 metric tons 2024-25, likely a response to the release of new improved sorghum varieties in Nigeria including Samsorg-41, Samsorg-42, Samsorg-47 (Zauna Inuwa), Samsorg-48 (Kaura Bornu), and Samsorg-49.
Adoption of these improved varieties, touted to withstand effects of climate change and reverse low sorghum productivity trends, led to an increase in sorghum yield and net income by 13% and 17%, respectively, according to recent research titled “Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and cereals in Africa,” which was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organization whose seed policies have been criticised for posing a risk of decimation of indigenous seeds and seed systems in Africa.
Nigeria’s sorghum trade consists largely of imports and exports with other African countries, especially Tanzania and Burundi, two countries atop the list of international buyers of Nigerian sorghum. The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), an online data visualization and distribution platform, says Nigeria exported an estimated US$2.35 million worth of sorghum in 2023, making it the 18th largest exporter of sorghum in the world. Export destinations included Tanzania, Burundi, Cameroon, Niger, and the United Kingdom. The analysis shows Burundi, Niger, and China as the fastest growing markets for the Nigerian sorghum.
Meanwhile, Nigeria with an estimated gross domestic product value of US$ 364 billion, imported an estimated US$ 10.9 million worth of sorghum in 2023, becoming the 16th largest importer of Sorghum globally according to OEC.
Looking ahead, the Central Bank of Nigeria predicts the country’s beverage, food, and milling manufacturing is likely to remain the biggest driver in the growth of the sorghum market in Nigeria where the GDP per capita is estimated at nearly US$ 1,600.