The Nation Newspaper

Tag: agric produce

  • ‘Air freight of agric produce could hit $350b in 10 years’ 

    Managing Director of ABX World Limited, Captain John Okakpu has said Nigeria can process agricultural produce  worth over $350 billion for export through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the next 10 years.

    Okakpu said facility providers at the airport were already bracing towards the projection, given the measures being put in place

    He said the projection was based on agricultural export initiatives put in place by some state governments.

    In an interview in Lagos last week, the pilot turned agricultural export promoter, said considering the level of success and acceptance of Nigeria’s agricultural produce exported to Europe in the year, there is ample evidence that in the next 10 years the country could net over $350 billion from such activity.

    Citing some state governments, he said last October, the Anambra State Government in partnership with ABX World, exported the first agriculture produce from its revolution project, which started last year, to Europe.

    The products, which were exported through the cargo section of Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, included yams, potatoes, pineapples, okro, pumpkin leaves, and bitter-leaf.

    Okakpu  said huge success was recorded this year in terms of agricultural export which used to be the main stay of Nigeria’s economy.

    He explained that Nigeria farmers, particularly those from Anambra, have keyed into the new agricultural revolution going on in Nigeria.

    He said: “This year has been very remarkable in terms of agricultural export. Agriculture used to be the main stay of Nigeria’s economy. I thank God for the knowledge we have been able to pass on to the farmers and the awareness we have created. Please I enjoin Nigerians to come with me and let us move to where we belong.”

    He added: ”Next year is going to be remarkable. Though there are little issues to be resolved by the government, there are still some agriculture products that are still under ban list by the Federal government. I am happy that the National Assembly is reviewing some of the laws governing exportation of agriculture produce.”

    On international acceptability of Nigeria’s produce, Okakpu said: “The market has already accepted our products. What we did early last year was to take it to them for test to see if it is acceptable. Now we have gone through the process of certification of the farmers because everything about food in Europe and any part of the world is safety. Global Gap is the network that controls all the supermarkets in the North America and Europe and once you have their certification, the market is guaranteed.”

    He appealed to the Federal Government to assist farmers to obtain single digit interest loans and provide the necessary logistics to make farming attractive to young Nigerians, adding that the nation is yet to tap half of its agricultural potential.

  • Nigeria gets EU’s deadline on banned agric produce

    Nigeria gets EU’s deadline on banned agric produce

    The European Union (EU) has given Nigeria up to June next year to get her acts together and imporve the standards of agricultural produce exported overseas. This is sequel to the EU Food Quality Agency’s ban of six food items produced in the country. The ban covers items such as beans, sesame seed, melon seeds, palm oil, bush meat and dried fish.

    According to the agency, the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg per kilogramme to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide, when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01 mg per kg.

    Chairman Export Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and CEO of Multimix Academy, Mr. Obiora Madu said there is justification for the suspension as safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality.

    According to him, food safety implies absence or acceptable and safe levels of contaminants, adulterants, naturally occurring toxins or any hazard that may make food injurious to health on chronic basis.

    Madu spoke during a National Agro-Commodity Export stakeholders meeting in Lagos, adding that there is need for a significant levelof investment in equipment and education to fill the gap created by the absence of a mature and reasonably well–developed export industry where the supply chain has utilised makeshift or multi-purpose facilities.

    He canvassed the overhaul, privatisation and commercialisation of Federal Produce Inspection (PIAs).  Madu further urged the government to set key performance indicators for the relevant agencies to halt the export of low quality foods.

    “Overturning this suspension requires a firm approach to enforcing standards at all times. The EU suspension was not a bolt from the blue, because the rejection notice started since January 2013. Now we have six months and if we do not take this matter seriously the suspension may become a ban that may extend to other strategic markets across the globe,” he warned.

    LCCI Director-General, Muda Yusuf urged the government to diversify into the non oil sectors of the economy, regretting that businesses have consistently suffered losses in export trade as a result of poor quality agricultural produce. He stressed the need for government to establish an intervention fund for exporters to meet international capacity, noting that the crisis the nation is in today is as a result of over dependence on oil.

    Also speaking on the occasion, International Food Standard Advisor, Mrs. Bukola Sotubu said unless agricultural exporters stop cutting corners, there will be no end to the ban of Nigerian agricultural produce. She regretted that some farmers use fake chemicals to preserve their produce while others use an over dose of chemicals which is not acceptable in international trade. According to her, some Nigerian exporters now export their produce through Ghana or Togo to avoid any attachment with the country, adding that in the long run, it does not augur well for the country as it will lead to revenue loss.

    Head of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration (NAFDAC), Mrs. Veronica Nkechi Ezeh criticised inappropriate use of pesticides in agricultural products. She blamed this on the porous border that allows almost everything into the country.

    “To meet international standards, there is a need for all regulatory bodies to work together to train agricultural exporters to improve the competitiveness of their products. But unfortunately, some people prefer the short cut of using fake quality certification of their products, rerouting their produce through other countries and in most cases losing their investment because some of the produce does not meet international requirements and fail quality test when they get to their final destination,” she said.

    She urged exporters to maintain high standard of sanitary condition in the place of their business in addition improving on packaging.

    LCCI President, Mr. Remi Bello also harped on the need to grant more credit lines to exporters so they could acquire the necessary facilities and equipment to meet international standards. He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) second quarter economic report of this year showed that a total of N2.7billion was guaranteed to 14.229 farmers under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS). According to him, the amount represented a decline of 2.9 and 19.1 per cent below the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of last year.

  • Nigeria’s agric produce imports exceeds N630b, says Emefiele

    Nigeria’s agric produce imports exceeds N630b, says Emefiele

    There is urgent need for government to give priority to the agricultural sector and save over N630 billion spent in importing agricultural produce, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele has said.

    The CBN chief who disclosed this at a workshop on innovative agricultural insurance products, in Lagos at the weekend, said the agricultural sector provides up to 70 per cent of employment in Nigeria and accounts for about 42 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    Emefiele, who was represented by the Acting Managing Director of Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Edwin Nzelu, said the large import food products include wheat, rice, flour, fish, tomato paste, textile and sugar.

    “We are confronted, as a nation with a wide range of development challenges especially with the dwindling global crude oil prices and the nation’s dependence on it as its major source of revenue. There is the need to diversify the mono-cultural tendencies of the economy by developing other sectors of the economy especially agriculture,” he said.

    H added that Nigeria’s formal financial system is lending about four per cent of all formal credit to the agricultural sector compared to three years ago when only about one per cent of all credit went to agriculture. He insisted that lending is still low given the lingering perception by banks that agriculture is highly risky.

    Emefiele said development and expansion of the agricultural insurance sub-sector will go a long way in mitigating against natural disasters and eventually encourage banks to lend to agriculture.

    “Agricultural insurance has been proven to be instrumental in transferring risks and stabilising farmers’ income, but in Nigeria, agricultural insurance is one of the less developed line of business. Therefore, there is need for insurance companies in collaboration with relevant stakeholders to develop innovative products that will carter for the needs of farmers in their provision of agricultural insurance,” he said.

    He explained that over the years, only the Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) was licensed to underwrite agriculture insurance in the country, until two years ago when NAICOM liberalised the insurance subsector for conventional insurers to underwrite.

    “I urge private insurance companies to take advantage of this opportunity and consider extending insurance cover to the agricultural sector to create a competitive market which will eventually increase insurance penetration to rural areas,” he said.

    Emefiele said expansion of agricultural insurance products has become imperative especially now that climatic reports have it that Nigerian farmers are prone to risks from natural disaster such as flood, draught as well as different crop and livestock diseases.

    He said that NIRSAL was established to tackle both the financial and commodity agricultural value chains and that its insurance pillar was created to facilitate the expansion of the agricultural insurance products for lending by encouraging the introduction of new products such as weather index insurance, yield index insurance, multi-peril among others.

    He said the workshop was organised in collaboration with Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) which has garnered experience over time in introducing various insurance products in some African countries and was one of the major stakeholders in designing NIRSAL.

  • Containerised shipping of agric produce on the rise

    A new window of opportunity has opened for farmers. Many of them are taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the movement of agricultural products in containers, a booming business which experts put at between $250 million and $500 million a year.

    Speaking with The Nation, the Chief Executive Officer and Programme Director of Multimix Academy, a Lagos-based export training and logistics outfit, Obiora Madu, said farmers were taking advantage of the availability of containers to ship out their agric produce.

    According to him, farmers, grain cooperatives, and exporters are taking advantage of the opportunities by shipping empty containers and filling them with grain overseas.

    He also said daily, foreign confectionaries buy agro products shipped in from overseas in 40-foot containers.

    According to him, more farmers are appreciating the importance of the export market for their business.

    Madu said the use of containers for the carriage of bulk agric commodities is effective and that farmers have found it profitable to ship their agric produce, such as cotton and cocoa through the seaports to their overseas buyers. Only recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said agricultural products earned $1.3 billion during the third quarter of last year alone.

    The major agro exports markets are identifies as United States, Asia and Europe. The principal export crops include cocoa beans, cocoa butter, cocoa cake, ginger, sesame seeds, and cashew nuts.

    Others are shea nuts, cotton lint, palm kernel cake, shea butter, cashew kernel, rubber, chillies, hibiscus flower, and tropical fruits.

    Experts such as Madu said there was substantial overseas market for shea butter for use in chocolate, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products hence, many farmers and entrepreneurs are involved in shipping shea butter in containers.

    Madu, however, explained that though, the demand for export is huge, there has been fewer number of trees in existence to cope with the surge in demand.

    Another major constraint, he pointed out, is maintaining quality control in processing, which requires organisation of harvest and collection.

    He said one of the challenges facing tropical fruit exporters is how to organise, assemble and transport their produce by air or sea without compromising export quality.

    Madu also blamed low yields of cashew nuts on aged trees, urging the government to encourage cashew tree regeneration and motivate the general public to return to the farm to boost export trade.

    He said ports have expanded their facilities to accommodate the increasing agro exports business. The growth in the value of waterborne agric exports, he maintained, could hit five per cent with increased production. He attributed this to the government’s support to farmers riding on the back of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES).

    Apparently recognising the opportunities in the business, shipping firms are taking time off to explain the benefits of containerised exports. Some of them have also moved a notch higher, assisting government agencies and non-governmental organisation (NGOs) in promoting soybeans in nutrition.

    Madu was, however, noted that airports are critical for the fast shipment of high-value, time-sensitive and perishable fruits.

    President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria(NCAN), Mr. Tola Faseru, said cashew nut producers could triple revenue from exports by increasing processing capacity and adding value to the crop.

    He called for the removal of bottlenecks hindering the processing of raw goods before export. Value addition, he noted, would help producers maximise returns and lessen the risk of price fluctuations in commodity markets.

    According to him, the market for agric exports is so huge, therefore the government must assist to remove all bottlenecks and create a conducive atmosphere to facilitate trade.

    Faseru urged the government to support exports, manufacturing and agricultural expansion to serve the cause of the private sector. He also urged exporters to pay attention to quality issues and avoid practices that could lead to the ban of exports from Nigeria.

    He admonished them to acquire relevant permits and certificates before exporting, adding that this would help them to be competitive and successful.

    He noted that the non-oil sector is growing and making significant contributions to national economic development.

    Similarly, the National President, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria (FACAN), Dr. Victor Inyama, said operators should improve facilities at the seaports since the bulk of agricultural produce are exported through the ports.

    He said the ports lack capacity and infrastructure to handle the increasing quantities of agric bulk exports.

    “There are cases of breakdown of facilities during peak periods, with queues of trucks building up outside the main ports’ gates, while vessels, too, struggle to berth,” he added.

    Spokesman for Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), Robo Adhuze, also called on the government to tackle the declining transportation infrastructure to avoid significant short- and long-term damage to the agric business sector.

    He said a situation where the ports and its logistics counterparts are under-performing was inimical to the growth of the business of agro-industrialists. He said significant efforts were needed to build new railways and rehabilitate the roads to provide suitable connection between the production areas and the selected ports.