The European Union (EU) has handed Nigeria a June 2016 deadline to put a system in place to reduce exported pesticide contaminated food products or export rejection.
The Director General of National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii, disclosed this in Abuja when the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (retd), visited the NAFDAC office in Abuja.
The NAFDAC boss explained that Nigerian food products are rejected at the international market because of their high pesticide residue, which actually is what Nigerians consume at home.
According to him: “This high pesticide residue could explain the increased level of cancers, kidney failures and different other diseases in the country.
“The agency will henceforth deploy mobile laboratories that will go from farm to farm and markets to identify at what point the contaminants get into the food products.”
He also stated that the agency will try to put a system in place so the products are tested by NCS before they leave Nigerian shores for the international markets.
Orhii said: “When we came in, Nigerian cocoa beans were being rejected at the international market because of pesticides residue but we held workshops with cocoa growers in Akure and since then, our cocoa exports have improved.”
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