Smarting from the revenue loss and associated downsides arising from the European Union (EU’s) suspension of Nigeria’s food exports to Europe, Olaseni Durojaiye examines some of the issues surrounding the suspension and Nigeria’s preparedness to resume food export
With the continuing debate bordering on the need to diversify the country’s economic mainstay away from the oil sector, further buoyed by the worrying signals from the sector, agriculture ranks top in the pecking order of alternative revenue points available to the government. The ranking though mindful of the foreign exchange revenue potential of the sector and ability to generate employment is not limited to the two factors.
The call for a return to the farm has been particularly loud in recent times because many see agricultural sector as a low hanging fruit. Other reasons include the historical factor and the huge value chain inherent in the sector. Another factor lies in the ability therein to generate huge foreign exchange for the country particularly in an era of declining foreign reserves.
The value of the food export business in Europe, America and parts of Asia which is estimated to be in the trillion of United States Dollar (USD) further gives credence to the potential credited to the sector. This appears to explain why governments at various levels have been showing interests in agriculture with different initiatives aimed at boosting the sector.
Barred from European market
However, findings revealed that the sector may remain under-achieving without export particularly to Europe and America. Recall that a number of agricultural products from Nigeria were suspended from being exported to Europe last June. The suspension came about when the European Union Rapid Alert System for food discovered excessive chemical contaminants like aluminium phosphide and dichlovos in food exports which included beans, melon seeds, sweet potatoes, cashew kernels, nutmeg snails and sesame seeds.
Other African countries are currently benefitting from Nigeria’s loss as many African shop owners in Europe have since turned to exporters from Ghana and Togo for supplies of some of the banned produce especially Palm Oil and Melon Seed. Expectedly this has led to revenue loss for the country.
Though official data was unavailable, THISDAY check revealed that Nigeria loses over $4billion annually from rejections of the nation’s non-oil exports at international markets. Poor quality and non-compliance with international standard of over 60 per cent of the country’s exported food products have denied Nigeria’s penetration into the food products markets in Europe, America and parts of Asia believed to be worth trillions of United States Dollar (USD).
Use of pesticides
Dichlovos is described as an insecticide of the organophosphate (OP) group. It has been in use since about 1955 and is used in the UK both professionally and in homes and gardens in a number of areas. Besides being in use in agriculture and horticulture, it is also in use in mushroom houses against mushroom flies and against various insects and beetles in poultry houses; and on protected ornamentals, protected vegetables and herbs and brassica seedlings.
In veterinary medicine, it is used for protecting farmed salmon against salmon lice; and as an aerosol against cat and dog fleas while it is used as an aerosol in public hygiene.
Achieving zero ban of Nigeria’s agriculture exports
Though the European Union (EU) has set June as deadline for lifting the suspension placed on agricultural produce from Nigeria, concern has continue to mount on the preparedness or otherwise of the country to resume exporting the products to Europe as investigations revealed that the lifting will not be automatic. Industry operators who spoke to THISDAY held that compliance to agreed standard remains the criteria for lifting the sanction adding that without that the country will not be able to harvest the huge revenue that abound in the sector.
Some quality control experts within the regulatory authorities believe that unscrupulous exporters of foods who circumvent quality control procedures put in place by NAFDAC, SON, and quarantine services contributed immensely to the avalanche of international rejections of Foods exported from Nigeria to Europe and other countries.
According to a Port Harcourt, Rivers State Public Affairs analyst, Ezeh Wordi, “Nigeria needs to upgrade its quality control infrastructure and inter-agency regulatory corporation particularly between NAFDAC and the standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON). This shouldn’t be restricted to export purpose alone.”
However, besides compliance with global standards, players in the sector also maintained that the economic policy of government hurts the sector. Those who spoke to THISDAY, including members of different chambers of commerce and industries, stated that the forex
regime in the country is to the disadvantage of the sector. They contended that unless government initiates sector specific intervention initiatives they doubt the resumption of suspended food exports from Nigeria to Europe come June when the current suspension is expected to end.
regime in the country is to the disadvantage of the sector. They contended that unless government initiates sector specific intervention initiatives they doubt the resumption of suspended food exports from Nigeria to Europe come June when the current suspension is expected to end.
President of Oyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), Adegoke Ogunniyi, told THISDAY that “compliance with ISO 9001 certification holds the key. Every country in the export business is complying with the ISO 9001 certification standard; we can’t be any different if we want to play on that global stage, we must adhere to the agreed standard,” he stated.
However, another agricultural sector player, Abiodun Oladapo, doubted the readiness of the country to return to that stage and blamed it on economic policy and infrastructure. According to him, besides that government policy does not favour operators in the sector, regulatory agencies also need to improve on their efficiency rating.
“The international food export market is one that is governed by rules; it operates on very strict standards; you can’t bend the rule. That said, the people in the business are in it for the profit since they are not philanthropists. They have to weigh cost against the benefits; those in the business use pesticides to cut cost which is what led to the suspension. The other option is to go organic; you can reduce the chemicals but that leads to additional cost; when you compare the cost and benefits you find out that you are unable to recover your cost, let alone make profit and that’s where the main issue lies.
“Though they gave us until June 2016, but I have not seen any concrete plan from government to encourage a turnaround of the industry. The forex policy in place does not favour people in export business. For instance, when government wants to buy dollar from you they pay N197 but when you need the money for your export business you have to resort to the black market where you buy it for well above N200,” he stated.
Oladapo also noted that the loss arising from the suspension was beyond “historical data alone” adding that the “Those who would have moved to the agriculture sector, especially the export area now that the oil sector is not doing very well cannot now do so and this is one of the reasons why the government need to look in that area,” he concluded.
Interestingly, THISDAY investigation further revealed that National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has initiated measures that are capable of reversing the trend and see to the return of the country’s agro products into the European market. THISDAY learnt that NAFDAC is set to deploy cutting-edge technology starting with the introduction of mobile laboratory as part of the Federal Government`s rescue package.
“Dr. Orhii is spearheading government’s intervention with a robust plan of acquiring 100 mobile motorized Laboratories that will traverse remote farm and produce markets centres all over the country. The One-Stop multi-purpose mobile Laboratories will be deployed to all the 36 states of the Federation and FCT Abuja with special consideration for states with high volume of agricultural activities.
The mobile laboratory testing will also encompass intensive training of farmers and produce marketers on food storage, packaging and other quality control issues,” stated Dr. Abubakar Jimoh, a director at NAFDAC in a statement made available to THISDAY.
Encouraging as it sounded, coupled with efforts being marshalled by the SON in that regard, stakeholder still insisted that there is still need for efficient implementation. They opined that if effectively implemented, such measures will ease the process of ensuring that Nigeria’s agro products are ISO 9001 compliant and thus save the country the embarrassment of having its agro exports suspended from participating in the global market as well as earn the country much needed
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