Rejected Nigerian Food Exports Not Approved by NAFDAC, Says DG

*Country earned N427.6bn from agric exports in 2022O

Nyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, has expressed dismay over the alarming rate of rejections of food exports from Nigeria due to non-involvement of the agency in the screening and certification of such goods.
She said that agricultural commodities that Nigeria exported within the first nine months of 2022 generated N427.6 billion ($1.02billion).

However, Adeyeye said about 82 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural products exported illegally were seized by European Union countries.
NAFDACS’s concern came just as pre-shipment inspection agents pledged to henceforth collaborate with regulatory agency to eliminate the rejection of Nigerians food exports through unified exportation procedure.

In a bid to find lasting solutions to the challenge of rejecting non-oil export from the country, the NAFDAC DG said the agency decided to once again extend hands of collaboration to critical stakeholders in the nations ports.
A statement signed by the NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant Mr. Sayo Akintola, quoted Adeyeye as having expressed worry that, “a competent authority on food safety matter with all her acclaimed global accreditation in food safety testing could be totally blanked out in the listed requirements for issuance of Clean Certificate of Inspection (CCI) by the Pre-shipment Inspection Agents.
“No wonder there are high volumes of reject from Nigeria as the NAFDAC regulated products were not tested nor production processes validated for compliance before export.”

The statement noted that Adeyeye was represented by the Director, Port Inspection Directorate (PID), who also heads the Office of Trade and International Relations (OTIR), Dr Abimbola Adegboye, at the consultative meeting with pre-shipment inspection agents held last Friday in Lagos.

She pointed out that the meeting was aimed at building effective collaboration with NAFDAC to complement its robust regulatory policies geared toward understanding the NAFDAC export processes, collaboration to safeguard a unified exportation procedure and zero rejects of Nigeria export products.
The NAFDAC boss noted that the agency acknowledges the importance of having broader and deeper interactions and collaborations with sister agencies such as Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigeria Custom Service (NCS), etc.

Adeyeye also emphasised the position of export as a key factor in every country’s economy, adding that the reason for regulation of the sector was to ensure that products that leave a country’s shores were of good quality, safe and meet international best practices among others.
“For Nigeria, trade is critical to the national economic makeup, adding that in 2021, Nigeria exported $57.7 billion of goods, making it the world’s 52nd most exporting country,” she said.

Adeyeye disclosed that cocoa beans, sesame seeds, cashew and seven other products top the list of agricultural commodities Nigeria exported within the first nine months of 2022, generating N427.6 billion or $1.02billion.
The DG NAFDAC listed reasons for export rejection to include technical barrier issues, defective packaging and inadequate labelling, non-documentation, unauthorised transition, illegal importation and non-compliance to destination markets standards.

She said authorities of the European Union would always reject consignments containing food that do not comply with EU maximum residue limits (MRLs) for Vet Medicine and Pesticides, and maximum limits (MLs) for Contaminants in foods.