Export Council Seeks Review Of EU Ban On Nigeria’s Products

Officials of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council are looking at ways of reviewing the European Union’s ban of products from Nigeria.

Issues of poor packaging, non-adherence to food safety measures and non-compliance to administrative procedure had characterised ‎product export from Nigeria to countries in Europe.

The Executive Director of the Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, said the ban, according to a report from the World Bank, could lead to a drop of over $6 billion exportable goods from developing countries by 2016.

Announcing the ban, the European Food Safety Authority said that the food substances were banned because they contained ‘a high level of unauthorised pesticide’.

The food items banned till 2016 include, beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil.

According to the EU, Nigeria’s beans was banned because it contained between 0.03mg per kg to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg.

The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Paul Orhii, blamed exporters for the ban.

He said they had failed to comply with regulatory requirements for semi-processed and processed commodities.