AirCargo: Non-certification of agric produce costs Nigeria $1bn yearly
By Sade Williams/Business a.m.
The non-certification of Nigerian agricultural produce for export is costing the country as much as $1 billion, it has now emerged.
Ikechi Uko, chairman, AviaCargo Roadmap Committee, in a paper titled ‘Repositioning Cargo Operations Through Development of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Nigeria’, presented at the recently concluded Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria’s National Aviation Conference (FNAC) in Abuja, noted with dismay that 80 percent of containers arriving Nigeria return empty due to an unstructured export system.
Out of every 10 containers that come into Nigeria laden with imports, only between one and three leave the country with exports, Uko said.
Nigeria is the largest producer of many agro-products, but still loses $1 billion annually to non-certification of the country’s agricultural produce for export as a result of lack of organisation.
“In 2021, the five biggest African exporting nations are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. Collectively, that powerful cohort of African shippers generated over half (55.7%) of the continent’s overall exports by value.
“Nigeria is known to be number one in several things like, economy by GDP, population, agricultural commodities, but Nigeria is 5th on the African AviaCargo export chart after Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia,” Uko said.
He, however, disclosed that the Nigerian government plans to grow cashew export from $252 million to $500 million in 2023.
The reason for lagging behind in the AviaCargo export chart is not far-fetched.
He listed non compliance of farmers to internationally and domestically accepted standards; lack of certification; inability to trace, lack of access to international markets; lack of knowledge on global requirements; bureaucracy and high cost, to be some of the obstacles to seamless export business in Nigeria.
Others are preservation and packaging to global standards; poor logistics; insecurity; weakness of supervision; poor airport infrastructure and lack of government support, among others.
However, as part of plans to reposition the system, he disclosed that FAAN made a move by setting up an AviaCargo Roadmap Committee with a view to articulating guidelines that meet international best practice for Public-Private Partnership in developing modern cargo infrastructure and facilities for optimum air-cargo facilitation that meets destination country’s standard.
While itemising tips for improved AviaCargo export, Uko posited that all agricultural exports from Nigeria must start from a farm, certified by the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services or a global GAP registered farm through a secured cargo pathway.
He concluded that since Nigeria is already a leader in most agricultural produce, it should target improvement in agricultural practices; invest in solving the huge logistic problems of agricultural produce; enhance certification of farms and operators in the value chain and insist on traceability of all exportable produce.
“It must tackle the mayhem at the export cargo terminals, upgrade packaging of all exports; incentivize the production of high value export crops and mitigate identified procedural and regulatory obstacles,” he added.