The Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN) says the association is working out stringent measures for commodities export to meet international standard to prevent loss of revenue for Nigeria due to rejections.
The Deputy Executive Secretary of the association; Mr Peter Bakare, made the call on Tuesday in an interview in Abuja.
Bakare said that stringent measures would be put in place on exports because the country had lost significant revenue, while many exporters had suffered heavy financial losses because of the number of rejected export items from Nigeria.
He said that the association was faced with many challenges leading to rejection of its produces in the international market because of inability to provide sanitary standard compliance documentations.
He said that years back some notable products like sesame seed, beans, cotton, groundnut, palm oil and cocoa that were illegally exported to the EU were rejected because some of them contained unauthorised substance, which made their quality substandard.
“Some of the produce were unhygienic, some had broken packages, particles and some contained aflatoxin, a toxic product responsible for liver cancer,’’ he said.
Bakare however said that the association was working hard to ensure proper registration of all commodity associations for proper monitoring.
“FACAN is also working with other relevant agencies are to ensure compliance with the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements of the international markets.
“To see that all export produce packaging meet the international market standard and ensure that the transportation of agricultural products meet best practice standard,’’ he said.
He disclosed that in 2018, more than 40 containers of hibiscus flowers were rejected in Mexico as a result of impurities, because some farmers used lower quantities of chemicals.
“Even at that, there is still high demand for the flower in Canada and other countries,’’ he said.
Bakare noted that not all produce for export were rejected, adding that cocoa, soya beans, groundnuts, cotton and Shea butter were not rejected as export.
“Though it is informal trade but the Arab world so much loves our cola nuts and bitter cola and the produce is doing well in the markets.’’
He said that the major problem confronting exporters was that most of the rejected produce was done in an informal way without proper supervision and export procedures.
“Two years ago Nigerian beans was illegally exported to EU countries was banned for one year and after the expiration, EU was dissatisfied with the quality assurance and it extended the ban by another two years.
“It is on record that large quantities of yam exported to the U.S was rejected as most were found to be unwholesome on arrival, some cocoa exports have also been rejected due to high levels of chemicals caused by drying practices.
“Mango is not left out of the rejection due to the prevalence of fruit-flies,’’ he said.
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