Export Trade: NAFDAC, Stakeholders Collaborate To Tackle Rejection Of Nigerian Products

To find lasting solutions to the problem of Nigeria non-oil export rejects abroad, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has extended hands of collaboration to critical stakeholders in the nation’s ports with a view to working together to revamp the export trade in the non-oil sector and reduce the rejection of Nigerian products thereby, positioning the country in a better state in the global market.

Recall that in 2021, Nigeria exported $57.7 billion of goods, making it the world’s 52nd most exporting country. 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 director general, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, at a consultative meeting with Pre-shipment Inspection Agents over the weekend, reiterated that, huge volume of Nigeria’s exported agricultural commodities were often rejected by the European Union (EU) for not meeting required standards, adding that EU countries seized about 82 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural products exported illegally.

The DG, NAFDAC listed the following as reasons for export rejects: “Technical Barrier issues e.g., defective packaging and inadequate labelling.

Non-Documentation, Unauthorised transition, Illegal importation, Non-compliance to destination markets’ standards, the EU will 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.

“Others include exporters’ boycott of relevant regulatory Agency e.g., NAFDAC, in the process of exportation, which leads to rejects, private huge losses and absence of government-to-government communications.”

The DG expressed dismay 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,” she averred.

Adeyeye, who was ably represented by the director, Port Inspection Directorate (PID), Dr Abimbola Adegboye, who also heads the Office of Trade and International Relations (OTIR), 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.

Adeyeye expressed her appreciation of the activities of PIAs as a main actor in the processes chain of exportation, adding that, coming together of the critical stakeholders will help make the trade of non-oil sector to be better, more robust and more consultative.

“NAFDACs door is opened to enhance export and trade, we encourage and support trade of quality products’, she said, adding that ‘we are enjoining the PIAs to be part of the game and to make sure we collaborate effectively,” she affirmed.