Nigeria seeks reversal of EU ban on agricultural products

Nigeria will make maximum efforts in seeking a reversal of the ban slammed on its agricultural products last week by the European Union, the Nigerian Senate said Friday.

In a statement made available to Xinhua, president of the Nigerian Senate Bukola Saraki said a motion on food export ban was raised Thursday, seeking to upturn the EU ban placed on agricultural products from Nigeria till next year.

The Nigerian senate leader urged regulatory bodies concerned to hold their responsibilities and work very hard to see that the ban was reversed as soon as possible.

"When we are talking about agriculture, diversification, we must ensure that we have products that are up to international standard. It is not a matter that we should toil with," he said.

The European Food Safety Authority said food substances from Nigeria contained "high level of unauthorized pesticide," while announcing the ban last week. Exported food items banned from Nigeria by the EU include melon seeds, dried fish and meat, sesame seeds, beans, chips, palm oil and peanut chips.

For instance, the European Food Safety Authority said, Nigerian beans were banned because they allegedly contained more than the acceptable maximum residue limit of dichlorvos pesticide, an organophosphate commonly used as insecticide to control and protect stored products from insects.

The ban might have adverse effects on the economy of Nigeria, currently the largest economy in Africa, local analysts said.

Nigeria has set up a committee on national food safety management to see the EU ban as a wake up call to sanitize food and agricultural products import into the West African country.

The local agric ministry, Nigeria Institute of Chemical Research, as well as the Standards Organization of Nigeria have also been tasked to jointly work assiduously in correcting the anomaly exposed by the EU ban. Endit