The European Union member nations have seized 82% of agro-products from Nigeria. The Federal Government made the announcement and explained that most of the products were prohibited for exports.
People illegally moved the items out of the country without clearance by the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), a regulatory agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that harmonises plants, veterinary and aquatic resources quarantine in Nigeria.
The agency promotes and regulates sanitary and phytosanitary measures in connection with the import and export of agricultural products with a view to minimising the risk to agricultural economy, food safety and the environment.
Interception of agricultural exports
The Director-General, NAQS, Vincent Isegbe, explained that the interception of agricultural exports from Nigeria by EU countries was basically due to the absence of the quarantine service in most Nigerian borders.
“So far, in all the records that we have, of all the (agro-products) interceptions, between 80 to 82% are all prohibited items. I know your next question will be why is it happening? It is because the quarantine service is not at the specific point of checking those things. There are two government circulars that delineated the quarantine service from operating at those points, saying that it is only Customs that will invite the quarantine service. And, of course, the Customs have their own duty to perform, in fact, so much to perform. So those are some of the issues that the government is looking at to be able to review,” Isegbe said.
Isegbe, however, noted that most reports by the EU on agro-products interceptions from Nigeria were incidental cases.
“You could have a situation where probably somebody carried a consignment for personal use and it is intercepted. And, of course, you know that when that happens, that interception will be reported within the 27-member EU nations and somebody who does not know the reason for the interception will say ‘oh, so much has been intercepted. Now, there are other prohibited items such as bark of woods used for local medicinal needs. That one is completely prohibited. We don’t want people to export that,” the NAQS boss added.
