The EU ban on Nigerian food imports

For some time now, a ban has been clamped on importation of dried beans from Nigeria by the European Union (EU). The food item can no longer be exported from Nigeria into the European market for failing to meet the European food safety requirements.
This suspension, it is learnt, has been on since June last year and will remain in force until June 30, 2016, when it may be removed, provided Nigeria is able to provide sufficient guarantees of compliance with the European food safety regulations.

Dried beans is not the only Nigerian product that is under ban in Europe. Products such as dried meat, smoked fish, peanut chips, palm oil, melon seeds and sesame seeds have also been banned. Unconfirmed reports say many other Nigerian commodities may follow if proactive measures are not taken by the government to mitigate the situation by addressing the issues that necessitated the suspensions.

Recently, the head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Nigeria, Mr. Filip Amato, was quoted in the media as saying that the suspension of the importation of dried beans from Nigeria was as a result of over 50 rejections of the commodity in the European market. According to Amato, the rejection was traced to the overdose of “unauthorized pesticide, dichlovos,” used in the preservation and processing of the dried beans in Nigeria.

These bans raise serious concerns about the direction of the nation’s economy when viewed against the backdrop of the downward trend in the price of oil in the international market. Since last year, the price of oil, the mainstay of the nation’s economy, has continued to plummet. This re-inforces the calls by the Organized Private Sector (OPS) for the diversification of the nation’s economy. The OPS specifically called for the re-invigoration of the agriculture sector, which used to be the cash cow of the nation’s economy before oil took the front seat.

In fairness to the government, proactive measures have been taken to upgrade the non-oil sector, especially agriculture. The immediate past administration did remarkably well in this regard and the present regime of President Muhammadu Buhari has acknowledged and promised to improve on it.

However, the real issue now is how to make the Nigerian agricultural products acceptable in the international market. It is against this backdrop that the recent concerns raised by the media, the National Assembly and lately the Federal Executive, which inaugurated an inter-agency committee charged with achieving zero rejection of Nigeria food products, can be appreciated. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is a member of that committee.

Given its mandate, it is the responsibility of SON to save the country from these frequent embarrassments by the nation’s international trade partners. SON should drive the policy of Made-in-Nigeria for the World (MINFOW) by ensuring that all the products leaving the shores of this country meet the required international standards. Anything short of this will be unacceptable.

As earlier stated, the EU is not in a hurry to remove the ban on dried beans even in 2016, unless it sees sufficient guarantees on the issues raised regarding the European food safety regulations and the commitment to consistently follow the regulations. It is, therefore, the duty of the SON to ensure that the Nigerian dried beans and other Nigerian banned products re-enter the European market and other parts of the world.

Also, according to media reports, the EU ban of the Nigerian products is largely on account of the nation’s long-standing quality infrastructure deficit. According to analysts, it is also for this reason that Nigeria could not maximize the window provided AGOA to give Africa the opportunity to access the American market.

What this means is that Nigeria must upgrade her quality infrastructure, whose components I gathered, include standards, testing labs, metrology, certification, accreditation and legislation. For instance, it takes metrology to develop standards and testing/measurement devices. It takes testing to discover overdose of a chemical. It takes standards to know the pesticide that is authorized and unauthorized. It takes certification and accreditation to separate the reliable laboratories and professionals from the- not –so- reliable. It also takes legislation to establish the administration that harmonizes the disparate technical regulatory bodies in the standardization system. SON must as a matter of urgency ensure that all these are in place.

SON Director General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, was recently reported as saying that the agency is doing something to address all these issues. In fact, he stressed the need for National Quality Infrastructure (NQI), adding that this would put a halt to disgraceful threats such as the EU ban of the Nigerian products.

According to him, the complex project involved bringing up dilapidated laboratories to world class so that they can be accredited and then having an accredited lab for each product in which Nigeria has comparative advantage or strategic interest. That means having at least 19 accredited laboratories in the near future. Only accredited labs are internationally trusted for valid test reports (scientific proofs of quality).

According to Odumodu, SON Food Technology Labs have won accreditation for both biological testing and chemical testing, while 10 others are already undergoing accreditation tests. Thus, what this translates to is that products certified in Nigeria within its competences are acceptable without further testing anywhere in the world.

Odumodu also said that quality, being a matter of measurement of accuracy and metrology, is witnessing a massive build-up. The metrology upgrade started with the upgrade of the metrology unit to a well-equipped department with two mobile units for calibration at distant sites and with staff that have been trained in some of the world’s renowned national metrology institutes.