EU rejects 24 food products from Nigeria - NAFDAC report

- The European Union rejected 24 exported
food products from Nigeria in 2016

- Out of the 24, the major products rejected
were palm oil, sesame seed, groundnut, and
beans

- The products were illegally exported and
were not certified at the ports by the agency
and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine
Services

Twenty four exported food products from Nigeria
were rejected by the European Union (EU) in 2016 for
failing to meet standards, NAN reports.

This was disclosed by the National Agency for Food
Drug administration Control (NAFDAC) spokesman,
Abubakar Jimoh, in an interview with the news
agency in Abuja on Monday, June 5.

According to Jimoh, among the 24 rejected products,
the major ones were palm oil, sesame seed,
groundnut, and beans, which were illegally exported
to the EU.

The NAFDAC spokesman also gave reasons why the
products were rejected noting that groundnut was
rejected due to the fact that it contained aflatoxin,
which made the quality substandard.

He further stated: “The exported palm oil did not
scale through the EU’s test because it also
contained a coloring agent that was carcinogenic.

“Beans was banned by EU sometime ago but it was
illegally exported to European countries.

“Beans was initially banned for one year, when EU
was not satisfied with our exported beans in terms of
quality assurance, it extended the ban by another
two years, which expires next year.

“NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies of the
government are working round the clock to ensure
that when the ban is lifted, we can then begin to
export more agricultural products to EU.”

Jimoh, who also doubles as the NAFDAC director of
special duties disclosed that most of the smuggled
products were not certified at the ports by the
agency and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine
Services.

Meanwhile Newslanded previously reported that Michel Arrion, the ambassador and head of EU
Delegation to Nigeria, has revealed that the EU will spend €150 million (N50 billion) on development of
the power sector in Nigeria.

He said this while speaking at the fifth Edition of the
EU-Nigeria Business Forum (EUNIBF) pre-event
briefing in Lagos.

Arrion revealed that the grant would be used mainly
for training young engineers and funding some
technical aspects of the power sector.