The persistent ban by the United States (US) on Nigeria’s smoked catfish (siluriformes) and all fish products export is responsible for the loss of about N576 million ($1.6m) the country would have earned in the last one year if the ban was not in place, BusinessDay’s calculations show.
Currently, Nigeria exports about 100 metric tonnes of catfish yearly to the US, Canada and Europe out of its 316,727MT annual aquaculture production, the Nigeria Catfish Association says.
The loss of N576 million is being recorded at a time the Federal Government is mouthing support for agriculture and says it is is serious about making the sector the largest foreign exchange earner.
An average price of catfish exported to the United States is $16 per kg. 1,000kg is equivalent to a tonne; therefore, 1,000kg multiplied by 100 tonnes gives 100,000kg.
To get the value in monetary terms, we multiplied $16 by 100,000kg, which is equal to $1.6 million (N576m).
“The development has affected catfish production and the country is losing a lot of revenue it would have generated since the ban was enforced,” Oloye Rotimi Olibale, president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN), said from his Ibadan farm in a telephone response to BusinessDay questions.
“Lots of fish farmers took loans from deposit money banks to invest in processing in order to take up opportunities in export but now with the ban since a year ago, most of them are unable to meet their loan obligations,” Olibale said.
He stated that the ban is killing the fish industry in the country and is a big threat to the Federal Government’s diversification drive through the sector.
He blamed the government for not taking prompt action in addressing the issue and ensuring that the ban is lifted within the shortest possible time.
The US had initially placed the ban for failure of the Nigerian government to fully provide answers to the information requested in a document called the Self Reporting Tool (SRT) before the due date.
According to the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA), the SRT is a prerequisite for trade and it is the process of determining whether a country’s food safety inspection system is equivalent to that applied domestically in the US.
Nigeria is yet to fully provide these answers after submitting the SRT document for the second time, the US Food Safety says.
“Nigeria has failed to fully address information requested in the Self Reporting Tool (SRT) and FSIS’ review of its May 2018 submission showed that equivalence requirements had still not been met,” said Veronika Pfaeffle, public affairs specialist, FSIS – USDA, in a statement.
“FSIS will continue to work with Nigeria if they want to continue to pursue the process to be deemed equivalent. Until that time, Nigeria will not be eligible to export these products to the US,” Pfaeffle said.
The ban, which has since taken effect in March 2018, has also shrunk market access for fish farmers in the country, as Europe and Canada are now also rejecting Nigeria’s catfish export as well, BusinessDay learnt.
The development has made catfish farmers to start counting their losses as their profit margins are fast declining owing to cancellation of future contracts to supply African diaspora in US, Canada and Europe.
“It has been difficult for us catfish farmers since the ban. Most farmers have now shifted into other businesses because export is where the market is for catfish production,” Richard Agetu, co-founder, Richsi Nigeria Limited, makers of Ejazuki smoked fish, told BusinessDay.
“Our profit margins have shrunk tremendously because we generate it mainly from our export sales. A fish we sell for about N1,000 here is being sold between $14 and $18 in the US,” Agetu said.
He stated that some farmers have now resorted to smuggling the smoked catfish into the US, Canada and Europe.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Bisi Adepegba, former director of the Federal Department of Fisheries, who has been hired as a consultant by the ministry to address the issue, said that the US government is yet to contact the country on the outcome of the second SRT document sent.
“We never knew the US had upgraded its SRT document and when we sent in the initial one, that was when the ban was enforced,” Adepegba said.
“We have made a new submission to provide the additional information but up till now we have not got any feedback from them. Without the feedback, we would not know the next step to take,” she said.
Josephine Okojie
