The European Union [EU] has placed an embargo on some food export from Nigeria. Some of the food products includes beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds [egusi], dried fish, dry meat, peanut chips and palm oil.
A statement from the European Food Safety Authority says the reason for the ban was because those food items contained ‘a high level of unauthorized pesticide.’
Nigerian beans was banned because it contained between 0.03mg per kg to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide when the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg. The ban on the food substances will expire in 2016.
According to some news agencies, the EU has been issuing warnings to Nigeria that the items constitute danger to human health due to a high level of unauthorized pesticide. The EU said it had issued 50 notifications to Nigerian beans exporters since January 2013. Also, the United Kingdom issued 13 border rejection alerts to Nigerian beans exporters between January and June 2015.
This is no doubt a big set-back for a nation that is already going through a rough period from reduction in oil income.
