By Thompson ABISOLA
The Coordinating Director of Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Dr Vincent Isegbe, says Nigerian shippers are exporting beans through neighbouring ports due to the ban on Nigerian beans export by the European Union.
Isegbe told newsmen in Lagos on Friday that some Nigerian exporters had devised new means of exporting the commodity through neighbouring ports.
“Right now, beans from Nigeria are going to the UK, but how is it going, they pass through another country and change the certificate of origin.
“When they get there, the beans are offloaded into a warehouse, the country’s quarantine service is called upon to inspect them and certify them okay.
“By so doing, it will now look as if the beans are from that country. It is a tedious process compared to you as a shipper, shipping from your country.”
Isegbe, however, said that this practice was not illegal, stressing that the procedure was allowed in international trade.
“It is only that it costs you more. You have to pay all necessary taxes and registration in that country you are stopping over.
“The EU were to come here in December, but when they saw the different advocacies we were doing like going to the markets, training the farmers, the dosage of chemicals acceptable and so on. When they saw all these, they have their own agents here.
“So, they wrote us that they have postponed their coming because they know we are making a lot of efforts.
“Any moment from now, there is no doubt that they would lift the ban,” he said.
Meanwhile, the service said it had begun the regulation of all beans sellers in Nigeria.
According to the agency, all beans sellers in the market will now have to get the products from distributors accredited by NAQS.
Isegbe said that the move was necessitated by the recent reports that Nigerian beans were being preserved with dangerous chemicals like ‘sniper’ which is harmful for human consumption.
