Economic case for exporting Nigerian food (2)

In this period of paucity of foreign exchange for Nigeria, owing to about 60 percent crash in international oil/gas price, is this not a wake-up call for Nigerians to stretch their business acumen beyond oil/gas trade to exportation of a vast array of Nigerian foods to a burgeoning African diaspora population? Kenya with a similar climate to Jos in Plateau State exports freshly-cut flowers to Europe on a daily basis and generates huge FX from the trade. On a trip abroad on Virgin Nigeria (before its demise) a couple of years ago, the peanuts served on board were made in Ghana, not Nigeria. Most countries in Africa including those earlier listed are collaborators with the EU AFTER project (aimed at packaging African food and drinks for Europe), invest time and energy to export agricultural products, but not so for Nigeria. Our policymakers probably don’t realize that, in international trade, according to World Trade Organization, agriculture is the only sector that Africa (and indeed Nigeria) has comparative advantage, not oil/gas as most of us are wont to believe.

Michael Adeyeye, mayor of Brent, London, and one of the three councillors in London, in company of the former Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on a visit to the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, remarked that more than one million Nigerians live in London. Is that market size not huge enough for our food entrepreneurs to target? With a population in excess of 170 million, one of every five African is believed to be a Nigerian, so we should be leading the pack in the export of African food to the diaspora. More strikingly, five of the 250 banks in London are owned by Nigerians, so funding food export ventures between Nigeria and the UK should not be such a daunting challenge. It even gets better as Gatwick Airport, the second most critically important airport in the UK after Heathrow, is partly owned by a Nigerian former investment banker, Bayo Ogunlesi.

Apart from lack of posh African restaurants abroad, there are just a few firms dedicated to African food supplies in Europe and the Americas. Amaka in Australia, Unidex in Holland and Yadco in Middlesex, England, are the few that readily come to mind. Unsurprisingly, it is unlikely that any of these companies, except Amaka which sounds like Igbo name, has roots in Nigeria.

Obfuscated by the stupendous wealth from oil/gas trade, agriculture and export of food overseas, in the past, were not considered viable by Nigerian merchants. In the wake of the current economic dire straits that Nigerians are facing, in terms of sourcing foreign exchange as the CBN restricts allocation to priority areas, and federal govt’s renewed interest in the agricultural sector, there have been concerted efforts to export for survival. However, as fascinating as the prospect of food export is, the recent European Food Safety Authority ban on export of certain food items from Nigeria (beans, sesame seed, melon seed, dried fish, peanut, palm oil and meat) due to the presence of the pesticide, dichlorvos, in excess of 00.1mg/kg which is the maximum level tolerable in Europe, the chances of food export business booming soon have become bleak.

The pertinent question now would be: has the high rate of the offending chemical (00.3mg/kg) been consistent or just a one-off incident? If consistent, to which agency was the infraction reported, NAFDAC, Standards Organization of Nigeria or Nigeria Export Processing Council? Given that Nigeria did not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement, which is considered slavish, with Europe, could there be any conspiracy to punish Nigerian food exporters as reprisal? The answers to the foregoing questions are germane and would have significant bearing on how quickly the food export quagmire is resolved.

Paul Orhii, DG of NAFDAC, has reportedly blamed exporters for not complying with standards set but he did not disclose what sanctions he meted out to enforce the rules. Also, was the contravention brought to the attention of SON and did the DG, Joseph Odumodu, intervene? In the aftermath of the EU ban, Segun Awolowo, the CEO of NIPC, drew attention to the World Bank report indicating that the ban could result in a loss of about $6 billion exportable goods from Africa, so how can Nigeria prevent such a colossal loss at a time that we should be gathering income as opposed to scattering?

Can the policy of farm extension services by the Ministry of Agriculture not be extended to today’s farmers as it was done for cocoa, cotton, groundnut and palm oil in the good old days? Is it not about time that the relevant govt agencies earlier mentioned collaborated to establish hi-tech laboratories and other quality control facilities that would enable self-management to ensure that optimum standards are maintained for products that are export-bound?

Answers and solutions to these and many more such questions and issues are what Nigerians expect our legislative and executive arms of govt to provide to enable Africans and indeed Nigerians in diaspora enjoy home food and feel like they are home-away-from-home. Taking advantage of the potential food market abroad will also enhance generation of foreign exchange for Nigerian farmer-entrepreneurs at home and in the process reduce dependence on oil/gas and CBN as source of FX. Clearly, agriculture venture is the lowest hanging fruit for Africa and indeed Nigeria. So let’s get it right.

Magnus Onyibe