Palm Oil, Bitter Kola, Donkey Skin Certified for Export
Jan 2, 2022 15:16:28 GMT 1
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Post by Trade facilitator on Jan 2, 2022 15:16:28 GMT 1
Palm Oil, Bitter Kola, Donkey Skin, Other Products Certified For Export By Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS)
The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (Establishment) Act, 2017 established the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service for the purpose of preventing the entry, establishment and spread of foreign pests and diseases of plant, animal and aquatic resources and products into the country and to promote sanitary and Phytosanitary measures as it relates to import and export of agricultural products with a view to minimizing the risk to agriculture, food safety and environment.
The organization recently revealed that it is intensifying efforts to accelerate the integration of the country’s domestic agricultural sector with global value chains.
The management the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) stated that it has come up with Export Certification Value Chains (ECVCs) for the following products:
Coconut
Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato
Kola Nut
Bitter Kola
Donkey Skin
Palm Oil.
The Export Certification Value Chain (ECVC) contains market intelligence specific to each product. It outlines opportunities in their value chains, and details the steps to follow to fulfill the requirements for producing an export-ready version of all the raw and value added forms of all the commodities.
The SCVC project is actually the first ever comprehensive effort made in the country to capture the possibilities in Nigeria’s comparative advantage in the national agricultural sector.
The Director General of the Service, Dr. Vincent Isegbe, made these revelations at a Summit and Management Retreat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in the year 2021. The theme for the summit was: “Leveraging Sanitary and Phytosanitary Adaptability to Push Continental and Global Export Frontiers.”
He also explained the reasons why it had become necessary for the agency to certify those six commodities. The DG explained that though donkey skin was initially banned in 2017, it was done so that the country could undertake a sustainable breeding programme to make the country reap the benefits of huge international donkey market.
Apart from the donkey market, there is also big market in goat skin. The country does not want to lose out in the donkey market globally. The only way to go in the huge market is to start and sustain the breeding of donkeys so that they can be sold and make good money for the country.
The essence of putting the certification in place was to see how the country could resolve the issue of donkey health and overcome “the donkey predicament”. This certification will go a long way in making and processing good export products saleable in the country.
For example, it is a general knowledge locally that bitter kola has a lot of medicinal values, but what the certification will do is to highlight these values to those who are pharmacists and those into pharmaceuticals. When these are officially made available to them, they can come and buy from the country.
The country will expect the research institutes to do more research in order to produce early growing species instead of depending on the traditional varieties that take ages to mature.
At that event, speaking on the ban of Nigerian beans by the European Union (EU), the Director General of the agency said that they had submitted a report to the Minister of Agriculture and indicated in it that incidences, the level of dichlorvos and other chemical pesticides had reduced.
He said “We too had gone to do some sampling across the geo-political zones in warehouses, in open markets and the farms; the report clearly shows that the levels are coming down, that is not to say that there are no incidences of people who probably, for one reason or the other, are still adulterating, especially the bulk grain aggregators, for fear that they may lose money”.
The DG explained that the agency cannot supply everything to farmers, supply every warehouse with chemicals, but they have put the information in the public domain that these storage pesticides are available and that they are the better ones to use.
From all the DG has said, it is clear that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the agency is doing everything within its power to drastically reduce or entirely wipe out the use of dangerous chemicals in grain preservation in the country. But more still needs to be done to assure our international commodity buyers that their health is important to us as a nation.
Stay with us for more on things the Federal Government is doing to increase the acceptability of the country’s export produce in the international market.
The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (Establishment) Act, 2017 established the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service for the purpose of preventing the entry, establishment and spread of foreign pests and diseases of plant, animal and aquatic resources and products into the country and to promote sanitary and Phytosanitary measures as it relates to import and export of agricultural products with a view to minimizing the risk to agriculture, food safety and environment.
The organization recently revealed that it is intensifying efforts to accelerate the integration of the country’s domestic agricultural sector with global value chains.
The management the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) stated that it has come up with Export Certification Value Chains (ECVCs) for the following products:
Coconut
Orange-fleshed Sweet Potato
Kola Nut
Bitter Kola
Donkey Skin
Palm Oil.
The Export Certification Value Chain (ECVC) contains market intelligence specific to each product. It outlines opportunities in their value chains, and details the steps to follow to fulfill the requirements for producing an export-ready version of all the raw and value added forms of all the commodities.
The SCVC project is actually the first ever comprehensive effort made in the country to capture the possibilities in Nigeria’s comparative advantage in the national agricultural sector.
The Director General of the Service, Dr. Vincent Isegbe, made these revelations at a Summit and Management Retreat in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in the year 2021. The theme for the summit was: “Leveraging Sanitary and Phytosanitary Adaptability to Push Continental and Global Export Frontiers.”
He also explained the reasons why it had become necessary for the agency to certify those six commodities. The DG explained that though donkey skin was initially banned in 2017, it was done so that the country could undertake a sustainable breeding programme to make the country reap the benefits of huge international donkey market.
Apart from the donkey market, there is also big market in goat skin. The country does not want to lose out in the donkey market globally. The only way to go in the huge market is to start and sustain the breeding of donkeys so that they can be sold and make good money for the country.
The essence of putting the certification in place was to see how the country could resolve the issue of donkey health and overcome “the donkey predicament”. This certification will go a long way in making and processing good export products saleable in the country.
For example, it is a general knowledge locally that bitter kola has a lot of medicinal values, but what the certification will do is to highlight these values to those who are pharmacists and those into pharmaceuticals. When these are officially made available to them, they can come and buy from the country.
The country will expect the research institutes to do more research in order to produce early growing species instead of depending on the traditional varieties that take ages to mature.
At that event, speaking on the ban of Nigerian beans by the European Union (EU), the Director General of the agency said that they had submitted a report to the Minister of Agriculture and indicated in it that incidences, the level of dichlorvos and other chemical pesticides had reduced.
He said “We too had gone to do some sampling across the geo-political zones in warehouses, in open markets and the farms; the report clearly shows that the levels are coming down, that is not to say that there are no incidences of people who probably, for one reason or the other, are still adulterating, especially the bulk grain aggregators, for fear that they may lose money”.
The DG explained that the agency cannot supply everything to farmers, supply every warehouse with chemicals, but they have put the information in the public domain that these storage pesticides are available and that they are the better ones to use.
From all the DG has said, it is clear that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the agency is doing everything within its power to drastically reduce or entirely wipe out the use of dangerous chemicals in grain preservation in the country. But more still needs to be done to assure our international commodity buyers that their health is important to us as a nation.
Stay with us for more on things the Federal Government is doing to increase the acceptability of the country’s export produce in the international market.
