The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has revealed that at least 70 percent of food exports from Nigeria were rejected abroad with huge financial losses to the exporters and the country at large.
Director-general of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye who made this disclosure in a statement on Monday has, however, called for more collaboration with other government agencies at the ports to reduce the incidence of rejection of food exports from Nigeria in some European countries and the United States of America.
She explained that the deplorable state of export trade facilitation for regulated products being shipped out of the country has continued to be a serious cause for concern for NAFDAC, adding that a trip to NAFDAC export warehouses within the international airport will explain unequivocally the major reason for the continuous rejection of Nigerian exports abroad.
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Adeyeye, however, pointed out that the agency was responding to this great challenge by initiating a collaborative measures with the government agencies at the Ports towards ensuring that goods are of requisite quality and meet the regulatory requirements of the importing countries and destinations before such are even packaged and hauled to the ports for shipment.
This, she said, raises the need for a more enhanced regulation of export – packaging, pre-shipment testing and certification to provide some quality assurance and to minimise rejects.
‘The mandate to safeguard the health of the populace through ensuring that food, medicines, cosmetics, medical devices, chemicals, and packaged water are safe, efficacious and of the right quality in an economy that is overwhelmingly dependent on the importation of the bulk of its finished products and raw materials could never have been actualized without effective presence of NAFDAC at the ports and land borders,’ she stated.
Adeyeye called on all stakeholders in the export trade to see this as a call to duty and collaborate with NAFDAC for the sake of the country.