NIGERIA’S economy, which is going through a turbulent period from reduction in oil income, is set to further unravel. Why? The European Union has just suspended some agricultural food exports from Nigeria. The food items banned from Europe till June 2016 are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil. This is a setback for a nation that desperately needs to expand its export basket to boost domestic agricultural activities and create jobs.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg. The embargo is a reflection of our inability to adhere to global standards, and this has come to haunt us at the international level again. Overturning the ban requires a firm approach to enforcing standards at all times.

But the ban is not a bolt from the blue. For some time, the EU has been warning Nigeria that the items constitute danger to human health because they “contain a high level of unauthorised pesticide.” The pesticide is applied when the products are being prepared for export. The EU said it had issued 50 notifications to Nigerian beans exporters since January 2013. It is baffling that the Nigerian authorities didn’t take any significant steps to reverse the situation. Likewise, the United Kingdom also issued 13 border rejection alerts to Nigerian beans exporters between January and June 2015. Our lax system will continue to hamper the economy from appropriating the benefits derivable from a revived export programme.

It confounds many that this problem has been with us for some time and nothing strategic has been done to deal with the situation. In 2013 for instance, 24 commodities of Nigerian origin exported to the UK were rejected, while the figure climbed to 42 food products in 2014. Some of the items were said to have been contaminated by aflatoxins, making them unfit for consumption.

The excuse by Paul Orhii, the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control that exporters caused the problem by not complying with regulatory requirements for semi-processed and processed commodities is untenable. NAFDAC has not conducted its regulatory oversight properly and needs to put stringent measures in place to monitor our products and guarantee them as safe for export before the next EU review in 2016. The Ministry of Agriculture did not pay sufficient attention to the problem either.

The ban on Nigerian foods provokes some questions. First, how do we preserve the foods that we eat locally? Second, how safe are the foods we import into the country? With our predilection for manipulating the system, Nigerian consumers might be susceptible to poisonous food imported from overseas. Take for example, the imported semi-processed poultry products and meat: several studies conducted by researchers and public agencies in markets in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt are revealing. A study by Okiomah Abu, a nutritional enzymologist, says “poultry products imported into the country contain toxic and heavy metals that can worsen the occurrence of food-borne diseases” because of the combination of feeds the animals eat. Ayoola Oduntan, the President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, said, “It has been discovered that smuggled poultry products contain (a) high level of bacteria. Also, toxic chemicals and solvents are used in preserving them so that their owners can get them into the country to be sold at prices cheaper than we (PAN members) are selling.”

We should be wary. In March 2014, Akinwunmi Adesina, the then Minister of Agriculture, had to personally order the destruction of a large consignment of contaminated imported frozen fish stored in a warehouse operated by Indians in Lagos. In a 2015 report, the World Health Organisation said, “Food contaminants, such as harmful parasites, bacteria, viruses, prions, chemical or radioactive substances, cause more than 200 diseases – ranging from infectious diseases to cancers.” The global health body added that unsafe food is linked to the death of about 2 million people annually.

However, a report in this newspaper said the Nigerian Customs Service had recently started enforcing the ban on imported poultry products, which are massively smuggled into the country. But government at the three tiers should also make policies to boost poultry and fish farming in the country to meet local demand and for export.

As a way forward, we could follow the standard practice in other climes like India, the UK, China and the United States, which operate effective food safety and regulatory agencies that monitor products stringently. US authorities are still battling China, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa to review a ban placed on American poultry and egg imports over the avian flu scare that broke out in December 2014. Last month, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ordered Nestlé, the Swiss multinational, to withdraw its instant noodles from the market over safety concerns.

The Ministry of Health, NAFDAC, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the newly inaugurated National Food Safety Management Committee should see the EU ban as a wake-up call to sanitise food imported into Nigeria, and those being consumed at home.

The EU action suggests that our unfavourable balance of trade position with our international partners will worsen as we cannot export more agricultural goods. The first quarter figures (2015) released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that crude oil and gas accounted for 89.2 per cent of our total export of N3.23 trillion with other exports constituting only 10.8 per cent. The nation imported goods and services worth N1.64 trillion within the same period. We should reverse this dependency on imports and harness our natural resources to become self-reliant in food production.

(Source: http://www.punchng.com/editorials/eu-ban-on-nigerian-food-exports/)

@The topic, I think NAFDAC should be reshuffled for optimal performance and strict compliance must be adhered to avoid further embarrassment.
The exporters should know that they are killing their businesses.
Though I support seeking alternative market, you can only succeed if you adhere to their rules.

this is wake up call for nafdac and other food regulatory body

Better

orpeeh:
this is wake up call for nafdac and other food regulatory body

the yorubas won't be happy about this:-]

Haaaaa gbese re oo

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NAFDAC has suddenly gone MIA after Dora (RIP) stopped heading it.

They should wake up the way EFCC just did

Please does this involve regular travellers carrying them along?

Oops! All these items dey expensive before, e go come worse now o

You will see NAFDAC step into action now.. i see someone panicking for the fear of losing his job..


check my signature for ur customised wristbands.

Na 2day Even south africa 4 here no allow Palm oil buh ah no cun know why dem dey ban am o

Hmm! Till 2016? I feel bad for those exporters that depend on this for survival...but they also messed up...they had been warned several times. Anyway, I saw some good news for me in there...the barn on importation of poultry products will help my business... More pple will come and buy my live chickens.

At least we go get enough to go round

Its simple the EU doesn't like buhari's visit to USA so they are in a way trying to show there anger.

If they ban our goods then China, India and other countries are opened for business

www.

I'm greatly depressed about this news. But there must be adherence to standard from NAFDAC no matter how. We have some aspiring exporters who re just entering into the market. We know that right from time that our people will like to cut corner but there must be stiff penalty on the part of the government to combat any illicit affair

Ahh, it means that beans will become cheap locally as there will be excess in the market abi?

If we had a Minister in charge of Agric, he would have seen the handwriting on the wall and taken steps to at least postpone the hammer to allow time for implementation of stringent measures, but whosai?

When we the owner never belleful......

Nawa o

the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.

This is for the beans, what's wrong with other banned items?

Big trouble.. means we have to rely on petroleum which is not good considering Iran may start exporting soon.

[size=18pt]GEJ(Mr Internship President) see what you've caused?[/size]

ok

The same beans ordinary Nigerians are forced to eat due to the ineffectiveness of the nation's regulatory bodies.

Thank you European Union for the ban

Great move

Huh! Nooooooooo

banning our oil as if dey av ordinary red clay........dey beta TankGod for d existence of TAX if not dey for poor pass Mali n dos small small countries for asia

Wetin consign me! Since they no longer export these commodities then it should be relatively cheaper here... i wish we can also cut down our food importation heavily. let us eat what we plant/produce only..... some ediots will blame Buhari or Gej for this.

The End Is Near