Stakeholders in Nigeria’s agriculture sector met recently in Lagos to deliberate on achieving the Global Agriculture Practises (GAP). RUTH OLUROUNBI was there and brings the report.
In an attempt to curtail food exports rejection cases from the international market, the federal government, through its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has begun working with collaborative partners in the public and private sectors to rid the country continued economic loses.
Records show that at least 15 per cent of Nigerian food exports are rejected at the international market due to some food quality and safety issues. In fact, last year, the country was placed on a suspension by the European Union, with a threat of permanent ban from the international market.
Those issues include lack of adherence to global standards, poor packaging, and high level of chemicals, poor labelling, insufficient information on nutritional content, presence of high level of pesticide residue and presence of Mycotoxins, among others.
This led to placement of suspension in some of Nigeria’s agriculture products from the international market.
“The reason for the import suspension measure on dried beans is that since January 2013, more than 50 rejections have been recorded at the EU borders in relation to this product originating from Nigeria, nearly all of them reporting the presence of the unauthorised pesticide dichlorvos at levels largely exceeding the acute reference dose tentatively established by the European Food Safety Authority.
“This represents a rate of rejections of more than 70 per cent of dried beans coming from Nigeria in the last two and a half years. This is why the European Commission considered that the import of this specific product would present a serious risk for human health that could not be addressed satisfactorily by simply continuing to reject further shipments of these products,” the Head of Trade and Economic Section of the European Union delegation to Nigeria, Filippo Amato, explained at the time.
He insisted that the ban would remain until there is substantial guarantee that adequate official control systems had been put in place to ensure compliance with food law requirements.
The suspension, according to officials in government, is costing Nigeria billions of dollars in revenue and could cost more if the situation is not remedied as soon as possible. To this end, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, called a meeting with stakeholders in the agriculture sector to fashion out ways to ensure zero food reject from the international markets.
The meeting, held in Lagos on February 27, 2017, themed “Zero Reject of Nigeria’s Agricultural Exports as a Catalyst for Economic Diversification,” had in attendance major stakeholders from all aspects of food production: processing and packaging experts, marketers, exporters, researchers and government officials, among others.
The meeting, according to the ministry, was to inform stakeholders about current efforts by government to boost agro and non-oil exports in order to have a shared understanding of the new processes and systems for ensuring zero reject of Nigeria’s agro and non-oil exports in the global market, through the designed methodologies and conduits of excellence.
It was also aimed at obtaining the buy-in of stakeholders in enriching and consolidating on the on-going process of emplacing a single quality control management system for agro and non-oil exports as well as compliance with global standards; create awareness among key policymakers in both public and private institutions to recognize the essential role of food safety in the production, preparation, manufacturing, distribution, storage, sale of food and food products, as well as build on the success recorded in promoting quality of our local consumption.
Additionally, the meeting was organised to “strengthen collaboration and coordination among various actors involved in each of the sectors of the food supply chain (Farm-to-Table) to prevent, detect and respond to food-borne diseases,” according to Ogbeh.
The Executive Director/CEO, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Segun Awolowo, speaking at the meeting, underlined the council’s efforts at contributing towards zero reject of Nigeria’s agricultural products from the international markets include provision of relevant capacity building programmes in with various development partners in private and public sectors. “Some of activities include streamlining export procedures and documentations, sensitisation workshops in producing states for farmers, processors, extension officials and exporters. We have covered over 20 states in the last two years. Capacity building also focuses on food safety procedures, packaging, labelling, and logistic packing for food and vegetable exporters, among others,” Awolowo said.
Among others who spoke on efforts to ensure implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), as well as making agricultural exports as easy as possible were representatives from National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and European Union (EU).
A representative from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) said it has put processes in place to ease documentation procedures and make exports easier for exporters, echoing same thing the NCS representatives said at the meeting.
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, who was represented by the acting Director General of NAFDAC, Yetunde Oni, said most rejects are based on health issues and as such, the ministry would collaborate with all MDAs for quality control on food production and consumption both for exports and local consumption.
Dr Shaukat H. Malik, Lead Technical Adviser, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), said the agency is convinced that Nigeria can meet the international food safety standards and it is supporting the country in providing quality infrastructure, developing programmes that support value chains that support zero rejection, as well as certifications.
On his part, EU representative, Dr Heiner Lehr, said the EU has created simplified Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and hygienic processes for storage, and would support the country in meeting the international food safety standards.
Audu Ogbeh said the ministry is “committed to developing the culture of value addition to our produce for both domestic consumption and export. We shall begin immediate and rapid intervention on control systems from processing/packaging to our sea ports/airports,” a major reason for calling the stakeholder meeting in the first place.
Prior to the meeting, the former President, Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, Professor Jide Elemo, had called for a total quality control programme through the introduction of requisite institutions that would guarantee that some of these issues are resolved.
“There is need for what we call total quality control measure to be put in place. In those days, there was what we called marketing board that ensured good quality of produce. The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is represented in a joint body of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) that set standard for food … So we need total quality management even to the point of shipment. Our quarantine services at the port should be up to their responsibility. The goods were not smuggled out of the country, they passed through the ports,” he once said.
It looks like Nigeria is heeding the call.
and then