Category: Agriculture

Major world economies are slipping into a ‘near-halt’ due to the pandemic coronavirus. Experts say Nigerian agro exporters could find themselves in a state they least expected as movements to top destinations are being restricted, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Despite  efforts by countries affected by the coronavirus  to control its spread, it is impacting global business.

Many analysts said the virus is hurting global economic growth.The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said the outbreak could cost the global economy $1 trillion this year.

Also, UNCTAD said the coronavirus epidemic is disrupting world trade and could result in a $50 billion decrease in exports across global value chains. Indeed, exporters have been hard hit.

Last month, some exporters saw huge decline in outward shipments as countries close borders and order cancellations increase due to the spread of Covid-19.

With people limiting travel and hunkering down due to fears of COVID-19, the impact  caused by the virus on businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, resorts and airlines  have bleed into the food and agriculture sectors.

Big ticket importers of agro produce countries, such as United  States(U.S.), UAE, Germany, United Kingdom (U.K.), Singapore, Italy and China  have also  taken   precautionary measures on food safety to prevent the spread of the virus and impact on their economies.

The rapidly-spreading coronavirus outbreak continues to rattle global markets as experts assess the risks posed by the virus to economies. Experts have warned of the impact it may have on agro exports. .

One of them, a former Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Prof Abiodun Adeloye, said the effects of the virus could slow global growth and hurt agricultural exports.

He said coronavirus poses a significant risk as demand for agricultural products has declined under restrictions put in place to contain the outbreak.

He expects reduced exports in places hard hit by the virus, and said loss of income in those places will further curtail export demand on a longer term.

The Executive Secretary, Institute of Export Operations and Management Nigeria, Ofon Udofia, said commodity markets have been hard  hit.

He noted that while international ports and their customs offices were operating fairly smoothly, the difficulties lie in getting agro exports to and from the docks because of restrictions brought by the virus into the shipping system.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, he warned that agro exports growth would dip, though its exact level was still difficult to predict.

He underscored the importance of coordinated action to limit the economic effect of the virus.

The importance of China

China is the largest crude oil importer in the world with a staggering 506 million tonnes of crude oil imported last year. She buys oil from Nigeria. But oil import from China has dropped.

Udofia said the shutdown of China has contributed to the transitory slump of crude oil imports.

His concern is that the oil price slump will affect the country. He believes that the coronavirus outbreak would exacerbate the negative economic effects.

He noted that travel restrictions due to the virus had also impeded the transportation of goods in and out of China.

Because of continued quarantines in China, he observed that problems remained for unloading shipments at docks and transporting goods to domestic destinations and delivery or pickup of those goods for consumers.

Apart from general exports, exporters have continued to report a shortage of shipping containers for agro produce bound for China.

At the same time, agro exports and empty containers are piling up at the ports of  the Asian country, he said.

Udofia said it was a nightmare getting agro exports to China.

For instance, he mentioned that it has been challenging getting sesame to China as freight forwarders have had a very hard time clearing shipments at the ports.

China buys Tumeric, Ginger and sesame from Nigeria. Currently, some shipping containers are   unable to dock at Chinese ports.

According to him, the disruption to China freight movement is being felt across major ports, including Nigeria.

Rippling effects of virus

While the death toll is the most important factor, the rippling effect of the virus is being felt in the shipping industry. According to experts, global shipping has been one of the biggest casualties. More tonnage of container ships can be found around the world. Coronavirus is upending the logistics of global shipping and plunging exports, especially farm products.

Speaking with The Nation from the United States, the Chairman, Policy Advisory and Conflict Resolution Committee, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof. Martins Anetekhai, said coronavirus  has damaged the world trade, economy, and of course, the shipping industry.

Anetekhai, who is a fisheries expert, added that the food industry has been also under pressure, while the impact on the shipping industry has been substantial.

He said US and UK were virtually shutting down mobility of citizens, closing businesses and controlling transportation to stop the spread of the deadly virus. As a result, imported products are getting backed up at the ports.

Anetekhai said the problem make foreign countries to role out measures that could lead to more rejection of Nigeria’s agro produce abroad. Several consignments of agriculture produce shipped to Europe have again been rejected and destroyed over poor quality and presence of high contents of poorly mixed agro chemicals used to treat or preserve them.

He feared that Europe would strengthen produce standards requirements to constitute a more significant barrier to agro exports from Nigeria. The top destinations for Nigeria’s agri-food products are the U.S., Europe, China, Vietnam, India and Japan.

While the impact of COVID-19 is not felt, experts said it was only a matter of time when Nigeria would be seriously impacted as she is significantly dependent on the global economy.

At stake are Nigeria’s agricultural exports, which accounted for 30 percent of all export revenue.  Already, oil price is fallen.

The Chief Executive Officer, Multimix Group, Dr. Obiora Madu, said the government needed a package of measures to help ease the economic blow.

Encouraging more Nigerians to export, agro exports, he added, should be one of the strategies.

Madu urged the government to introduce new measures to ensure that food production is not interrupted by coronavirus. These include increasing farm productivity, enabling higher value addition, strengthening logistics infrastructure to improve the sector’s global competitiveness.

As COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, experts expect the impact to be worse, with the economies falling into recession.

Nigeria’s customers with coronavirus

As multiple countries report coronavirus cases, Nigeria’s agro exports to customers could be impacted. A few countries that have reported cases of the coronavirus have trade relationship with Nigeria. These include U.S. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Thailand, Australia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Canada, Cambodia and Germany.

As a result of the virus outbreak, they are conducting quarantine checks to contain the spread of it. This is having a knock-on effect in the global commodities market.

By Daniel Essiet

The Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Director-General Qu Dongyu has welcomed a 17 million euros contribution from Germany to provide assistance to those affected by the Desert Locust upsurge in East Africa.

Germany’s Permanent Representative to FAO, Ulrich Seidenberger, made the announcement at FAO headquarters in Rome. The new pledge comes after Germany had contributed three million euro.

“I want to thank Germany for its generous contribution and for recognising the urgent need to alleviate the alarming impact of the Desert Locust upsurge. We are working to curb the locusts’ spread but we also need to safeguard livelihoods and promote early recovery,” Qu said.

FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service says it is the worst outbreak to strike Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years and the worst infestation that Kenya has experienced in 70 years. Djibouti and Eritrea have also been affected, and locusts have been reported in South Sudan, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania, although the situation there is less dire.

Its Director-General stressed the situation was extremely alarming in East Africa, a region where 20 million people are already considered food insecure. There, the swarms have laid eggs and in a few weeks’ time, these will mature, and start to eat crops – right at the start of the region’s main agricultural season.

“Fighting the locusts is half the battle. The other half is helping the people affected. Germany’s support will enable FAO to provide much needed support to the farmers and their families,”Qu said.

The Desert Locust is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world. A swarm covering one square kilometer contains 40 million locusts that can eat the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people.

Pasture and croplands have already suffered damage in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and there are potentially severe consequences for the region where millions rely on agriculture and livestock rearing for their survival.

FAO has appealed for $138 million to assist the countries that have been impacted. Germany’s announcement raises the amount pledged by donors to $69 million.

FAO has surged 15 locust experts and other personnel to support governments with surveillance and coordination of locust control activities, technical advice and the procurement of supplies and equipment for aerial and ground operations.

Of the $138 million, FAO has earmarked more than $60 million to curb the spread of the disease; over $67 million to safeguard livelihoods and promote early recovery; and close to $10 million to promote regional co-ordination and preparedness.

Desert Locust monitoring, forecasting and control are at the heart of FAO’s mandate.

Its Desert Locust Information Service has been in operation for nearly 50 years. FAO’s well-established field presence, ability to link up authorities from different countries, and expertise in Desert Locust management make it a key player in responding to upsurges like that  affecting East Africa and the Red Sea area.

There are growing incidents of food fraud in Nigeria and other parts of the world. Multinational professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) says food fraud runs into billions of dollars yearly. Consequently, experts have called for surveillance to stem economically motivated adulteration (EMA), DANIEL ESSIET report.

Food fraud, described as a deliberate act of altering food products with the intention of deceiving consumers, is a threat worldwide.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multinational professional services firm, says global food fraud is estimated at $40 billion yearly.

According to foodengineering magazine, many food products that are susceptible to fraud are expensive to produce and take to the market. Also,  they have a high premium, and their appearance makes it hard to visually detect any adulteration, the magazine added.

In Nigeria, like other developing countries, there have been reported cases of food fraud, taking the forms of counterfeiting, theft, adulteration, tampering and unauthorise, which are deliberate.

While the extent of food fraud is difficult to quantify, experts say consumers are at an increased risk of buying lower-quality food than what they pay for or, worse, eating food with unsafe ingredients or undeclared allergens.

As a matter of fact, major food producers are facing high competition. The market place is saturated. This has led to players adulterating food for economic gains.These days, fraud perpetuators inflate values of nutrients in products that may have been diluted.

Products are then mislabeled as higher value. Most foods associated with fraud include honey, meat and grain-based foods, fruit juices, organic foods, coffee, and some highly processed foods.  Experts say some cases go undetected since they don’t immediately result in food safety risk and consumers do not notice a quality problem.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Mycotoxicology Society of Nigeria (MYCOTOXSON), Prof. Dele Fapohunda, said food fraud, or the act of defrauding buyers of food or ingredients for gains, is a serious issue.

He said beyond the cost, food fraud has severe implications to public health and consumer trust. He said consumers expect greater assurance at every stage of the supply chain.  He stressed the need to give food fraud the attention it warrants to enhance trust in food safety and quality.

According to him,  food businesses must have preventive controls in place as well as product traceability records to ensure products meet laws.

Ensuring safe food, according to him, is essential for the protection of human health and for improving the quality of life. He said  it  was  essential that imported and local  foods are safe for  human  consumption  and  are  not  subject  to  fraudulent  practices.

He emphasised  the  need  for  both the public and private sectors to take responsibility to improve food safety, as well as the need to educate and  involve  all  stakeholders  in  the  food  chain  in  the  production  of safe  food,  including farmers and consumers.

In most markets, there have been cases of adulterated honey and spices, mislabelled and false claims of organic products. Honey is one of nature’s original products, and it is made by bees with no additives or preservatives of any kind. It is one of many food products that are vulnerable to economically motivated adulteration. There are chances   of a product labeled as honey adulterated with sugar or syrup.

The  founder and Director, Centre for Bee Research & Development (CEBRAD), Dr. Bidemi Ojeleye,  said cheap counterfeit honey is endangering beekeeping and the consequences are severe.

Ojeleye is among honey producers feeling the sting from cheaper, adulterated honey.

A nutritional biochemist and a certified beekeeper, Ojeleye, said honey fraud is devastating for honest businesses like his. He works with bees, spinning honey out of hives. The challenge for him is that nothing is being done to stop adulterated honey from entering the market.  The demand for honey is high and production is limited.

Ojeleye owns many bee hives where he produces genuine honey but the quantity is not enough to go round. While adulterated honey is pouring into the market, the local beekeepers are feeling the sting. The producers, who pride themselves on turning out the real thing, are feeling the adverse effects.

Today, honey fraud takes different forms. Fraudsters add sugar syrups to increase the volume. In all cases, the final product is far from what consumers think they’re buying. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), unripe honey is harvested when it is still a watery soup with high water contents. It is then artificially dried, resin residues are eliminated by filtering, pollen may be removed or added to mask country of origin, and syrups are added to meet the different market prices.

Mislabeling of food is a growing global problem including in the honey market.

Ojeleye said such acts compromise the confidence of customers and raises health and safety concerns.

Honey is an obvious target for counterfeiters. There is no method for authenticating honey, fraudsters are one step ahead of regulators and trusted brands have been showing up with added syrups.

According to analysts, the demand for honey is rising even as its production is getting harder to sustain environmentally.

Other food products

In  February 2018, 14-year-old Nahima and Yayaya, died after eating tainted biscuits at a classmate’s birthday celebration in their school, located just outside Abuja. Several other children in their class were hospitalised. Panic and threats from angry parents forced a temporary school closure. But, to date, there have been no efforts to investigate the root causes of the death. No company has been identified and sanctioned for the incident either.

Addressing an empowerment forum organised by Foundation Faith Ministry in Lagos, co-founder of AACE Foods Mrs Ndidi Nwuneli said she observed first-hand the magnitude of the food fraud crisis and how supermarket shelves and open market stalls are  stocked with counterfeit products.

According to her, food fraud is a crime that impacts the authenticity of food products and can be  harmful to consumers, food businesses and the wider industry.

She lamented that there were rising poor food safety practices and standards, which has led to huge economic losses.

She said lack of control to protect individual brand has also created room for people to fake products of reputable companies to make money, leaving the image of the company tarnished in the public.

She called for measures to prevent fraudulent or deceptive practices and unwholesome production of food and any other practices that may lead to injuries to consumers’ health.

Food fraud has become a serious concern to regulatory agencies. It can occur on a large scale and with more complexity due in part to the increased globalisation of food and agricultural supply chains.

According to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), this development has led to huge economic losses evident in the myriad of rejected export food from Nigeria at international borders.

Its Director-General, Prof. Christiana Adeyeye, said a major concern that deserves ‘very serious’ attention is how not to compromise food safety standards in the race to increase food production and processing to provide food for the growing population around the world.

Adeyeye, who spoke during  World Food Safety Day, anchored by the Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) Directorate last year in Ikeja, Lagos, said there were some reccurring food safety and emerging issues were of major concern, despite of aggressive efforts by regulators to contain the problem.

She said some of the poor food safety practices include: artificial ripening of fruits using unapproved agents such as calcium, which could have deleterious effects on health when such fruits are consumed; use of unapproved insecticide such as sniper for preservation of gains by unauthorised persons; use of containers contaminated with hazardous chemicals such as fertiliser bags for grains or chemical drums and jerry cans for food storage, which she stressed is a classical example of a common practice among the market men and women due to ignorance.

Other practices, she added, are unauthorised use of chemicals such as dichlorvos for storage of grains and other agricultural produce by unauthorised persons, which could lead to contamination of the stored products as well as exporters and dealers of agricultural commodities who spray hazardous pesticides on produce during storage to prevent damage by pests at the cost of human lives and public health.