Nigerian Beans Export still Banned – EU Official Insists

A trade officer at the Dutch Embassy has refuted the claims by some agricultural stakeholders in the country that the EU ban placed on Nigerian beans export has been lifted.

One of these claims was allegedly made by the Director General of NAFDAC Dr Yetunde Oni in a purported speech to the Senate Health Committee. The DG was quoted as having intimated the Committee that the “ban placed on Nigeria on exportation of beans by the European Union due to its claim of being substandard and poisonous had been lifted for the next three years”. AgroNigeria made spirited effort to reach the office of the NAFDAC boss, but all such attempts proved abortive as at the time of filing this story.

Speaking to AgroNigeria  on telephone, the official who pleaded anonymity described the claims as false, adding that the ban was very much still in place.

The EU had banned importation of Nigeria’s dried beans in June 2015 on grounds of safety related to high chemical residue considered dangerous to human health. Sadly, the ban was extended by three years in June 2016.

In a bid to reverse the ban the Federal Government in August 2016 inaugurated a 26-member Standing Inter-Ministerial Technical Committee to address the rejection of Nigeria`s dry beans by the European Union. While inaugurating the Committee, Audu Ogbeh, Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister left nothing to doubt about its terms of reference: “We are here to take our destinies in our hands by finding lasting solution to the incessant rejection of our agricultural commodities, especially in Europe”.

According to Ogbeh “We need to avoid the embarrassment of further rejection in the future by strengthening our regulatory authorities to live up to their mandates. Our desire for agricultural products and non-oil exports means there will be vigorous pursuit of investment in quality control and standardization”

But sectoral watchers had applauded the Minister for taking up a key point earlier expressed by Michel Arrion, EU Ambassador to Nigeria and Head of the West African Mission, who had underscored that the rejection was a ‘red flag’ for the Nigerian consumers as well. In Ogbeh’s words, addressing the challenge entailed “working with the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service to ensure safety of what we produce and consume locally and export internationally”.

Source: agronigeria