Post by Trade facilitator on Aug 19, 2021 20:52:13 GMT 1
Rejection Of Food And Agricultural Commodities From Nigeria By The US And EU: NAFDAC Raises Alarm
The National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) has decried the incessant rejection of food and agricultural commodities from Nigeria by the United States of America and The European Union over poor quality.
This was revealed by the Director General of the Agency, Professor Moji Adeyeye recently, where she also called for synergy among government agencies.
Moji Adeyeye, in a press statement on Quality and Safety of Export Food Trade urged all regulatory agencies at the National port given the responsibility to ensure high quality of imports and exports to find urgent solutions to Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Border Rejection Notification from The European Commission on products originating from Nigeria.
What you need to know about European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF):
It may interest you to know that the European Union (EU) has one of the highest food standards in the entire world. This is because there is a solid set of European Legislations in place that ensures that food is safe for consumers.
This tool, Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) enables the European Union (EU) to ensure flow of information enabling swift reaction when risks to public health are detected in the food chain.
The tool was created in 1979 to enable information to be shared efficiently between its members (European Union members states national food safety authorities commission); and it provides round the clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to collectively and efficiently.
Therefore, you can see that there is no way out with any sub-standard food and other commodities in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA).
The Director General (DG), Moji Adeyeye, lamented the resultant bad image that the repeated rejection of commodities from Nigeria has caused the country.
She said that the National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) has a statutory responsibility to safeguard health through the execution of its mandate. She said “NAFDAC is designated as World Trade Organization (WTO)/Sanitary and Phytosanitary enquiry point in Nigeria on food safety to facilitate international trade, and respond to enquiries on safety standards, regulations, and guidelines on food trade in Nigeria”
She complained that internationally, some Nigeria’s products meant for the international market are faced with the presence of contaminants such as, pesticide residues, notoriously dictilorvos and other impurities exceeding the maximum permitted level; and some with inadequate packaging and labeling.
These inadequacies have caused a lot of rejections of Nigerian food products and agricultural commodities in the international market.
National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) should intervene so that products designated for exports should be subjected to one hundred percent (100%) pre-export testing and issuance of health certificates to products with satisfactory limits before the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) further verify them at the border.
What is the way out of this problem?
I believe this is not the time to pass blames, but let us go back a little in history. In 2015, the European Union (EU) banned the importation of Nigeria’s dried beans from entering their countries, reason being that the beans contained high level of pesticide considered dangerous to human health.
The Nigerian export inspection agents did nothing, and the ban was extended for two more years because there was no effort to implement EU’s safety action plan submitted since 2018.
Also in March 2018, the United States of America banned Nigeria’s processed smoked fish because of administrative failures to provide basic information required in the export of such commodities.
If we go further we will discover that so many of Nigeria’s agricultural products were banned or rejected simply because of the inability of the agencies saddled with the responsibility to manage the system did not act.
There was a complete lack of synergy or proper coordination among regulatory agencies that were supposed to provide support to exporters.
All relevant government agencies should come together to tackle this monster attacking Nigerian economy.
We conduct training for exporters at our training ground; don’t forget to enquire from the admin for all your training needs.
The National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) has decried the incessant rejection of food and agricultural commodities from Nigeria by the United States of America and The European Union over poor quality.
This was revealed by the Director General of the Agency, Professor Moji Adeyeye recently, where she also called for synergy among government agencies.
Moji Adeyeye, in a press statement on Quality and Safety of Export Food Trade urged all regulatory agencies at the National port given the responsibility to ensure high quality of imports and exports to find urgent solutions to Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Border Rejection Notification from The European Commission on products originating from Nigeria.
What you need to know about European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF):
It may interest you to know that the European Union (EU) has one of the highest food standards in the entire world. This is because there is a solid set of European Legislations in place that ensures that food is safe for consumers.
This tool, Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) enables the European Union (EU) to ensure flow of information enabling swift reaction when risks to public health are detected in the food chain.
The tool was created in 1979 to enable information to be shared efficiently between its members (European Union members states national food safety authorities commission); and it provides round the clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to collectively and efficiently.
Therefore, you can see that there is no way out with any sub-standard food and other commodities in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA).
The Director General (DG), Moji Adeyeye, lamented the resultant bad image that the repeated rejection of commodities from Nigeria has caused the country.
She said that the National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) has a statutory responsibility to safeguard health through the execution of its mandate. She said “NAFDAC is designated as World Trade Organization (WTO)/Sanitary and Phytosanitary enquiry point in Nigeria on food safety to facilitate international trade, and respond to enquiries on safety standards, regulations, and guidelines on food trade in Nigeria”
She complained that internationally, some Nigeria’s products meant for the international market are faced with the presence of contaminants such as, pesticide residues, notoriously dictilorvos and other impurities exceeding the maximum permitted level; and some with inadequate packaging and labeling.
These inadequacies have caused a lot of rejections of Nigerian food products and agricultural commodities in the international market.
National Agency for Food And Drug Administration & Control (NAFDAC) should intervene so that products designated for exports should be subjected to one hundred percent (100%) pre-export testing and issuance of health certificates to products with satisfactory limits before the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) further verify them at the border.
What is the way out of this problem?
I believe this is not the time to pass blames, but let us go back a little in history. In 2015, the European Union (EU) banned the importation of Nigeria’s dried beans from entering their countries, reason being that the beans contained high level of pesticide considered dangerous to human health.
The Nigerian export inspection agents did nothing, and the ban was extended for two more years because there was no effort to implement EU’s safety action plan submitted since 2018.
Also in March 2018, the United States of America banned Nigeria’s processed smoked fish because of administrative failures to provide basic information required in the export of such commodities.
If we go further we will discover that so many of Nigeria’s agricultural products were banned or rejected simply because of the inability of the agencies saddled with the responsibility to manage the system did not act.
There was a complete lack of synergy or proper coordination among regulatory agencies that were supposed to provide support to exporters.
All relevant government agencies should come together to tackle this monster attacking Nigerian economy.
We conduct training for exporters at our training ground; don’t forget to enquire from the admin for all your training needs.
