We’re striving to end EU ban on Nigerian Beans, says NAQS

Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has said that plans are underway to make Nigerian beans acceptable to the European Union (EU) markets again.

Speaking at the Policy Development Facility Phase II in Lagos, a chief superintendent with NAQS, Abdullahi Orumah, stated that the EU was in the country in July to discuss the issue.

“We want them to come back in December so that they can lift the ban finally. This is what we have done to ensure that Nigeria continues to export (beans),” he added.

In 2015, a consignment of Nigerian beans was rejected under the EU export regulations.

According to Orumah, upon arrival at Tin Can Island, the NAQS team went to inspect the consignment and discovered that some of the containers were already powdery and the rejection was on the premise of chemical residue.

“We took our own analysis from there and discovered that aside from the pesticide residue, there was also the presence of pests, which occasioned the powdery form of the beans.”

He added that the director-general of NAQS, Dr. Vincent Isegbe, was also in Mexico and The Netherlands last week to see how the ban on the hibiscus flower (for making zobo) would be lifted.

“The Mexican government imports lots of hibiscus flower from Nigeria. But I think sometimes in 2017, there was this presence of the pest in one of the containers and the Mexican government, on that premise, banned our hibiscus.

“We have done lots of protocols regarding that ban. We have gone to the source of inspection in Kano. We went to the warehouses, checking the packaging down to the farm. We went there to see how they could package them pest-free,” he stated.
 
In her speech, Exporter Voices Lead, PDF II, Trade Policy Workstream, Titilope Ojo, noted that the essence of the programme included building capacity of exporters.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Leveraging AfCTA for Market Entry’, she advised the country to position itself to maximise the benefit of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) and the No Brexit deal.

“That is how Nigeria will review trade relations with the United Kingdom (UK).”