Country loses $2.8bn to poultry product smuggling —PAN

monjola sotubo

June 2, 2015 4:24 PM

The association stated further that 1.2 million metric tons of the products are brought into the country illegally every year.

From left: Representative of Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service, Assistant Comptroller Binga Panunga; Treasurer, Poultry Association of Nigeria, PAN Imo State branch, Mrs Ijeoma Nwachuckwu; Chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Muhammad Adam and President of PAN, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan at the 2015 PAN National Summit, in Lagos.

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has said that the country loses about $2.8 billion annually to poultry product smuggling.

This was disclosed by PAN President, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan during the 3rd edition of the Nigeria Poultry Summit in Lagos.

He said:

“The biggest part of poultry industry is broiler businesses and in this country we produce about 300,000 metric tons of chicken annually in which we are consuming about 2 million tons of maize. This aspect alone has enabled us to engage over 500,000 maize farmers without putting into consideration other people that will be taken part before it reaches the end user.”

“Let’s now imagine the number of jobs that would have been created in poultry industry alone if we can put a stop to about 1.2 million metric tons of chicken smuggled into the country on yearly basis. We estimated about 2.75 billion dollar that is living this country so that this smuggle chicken can come in.”

“Nigerians need to realise that this smuggled chicken is responsible for several health issues we are having in this country, due to the presence of high level of bacteria in the chicken coupled with high toxic chemical that are used to preserve it just to ensure it gets to our market at cheaper rate.”

Oduntan also commended the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for their efforts towards restructuring Nigeria’s agriculture sector.

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