Nigeria loses N400bn to smuggled poultry products

Nigeria is currently losing over N400 billion to smuggled poultry products every year, New Telegraph has learnt, Already, the spate of smuggling has posed a serious threat to the poultry industry in the country. This newspaper’s investigation revealed that in the last five years, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had made 1,839 seizures valued at N2.407.83 billion. In 2010, NCS seized smuggled turkey and chicken worth N94.65 million. In 2011, it also made confiscations worth N233.85million.

The seizures in 2012 were N308.41million; in 2013 – N1.148.75billion, while that of 2014 was valued at N622.17million. In 2010, poultry accounted for one per cent of total seizures; four per cent in 2011, seven percent in 2012, eight percent in 2013 and seven per cent in 2014.

Speaking on the development, an Assistant Comptroller of Customs, Musa Binga, said that the NCS was conscious of its role in protecting poultry products and those of other local industries by curtailing smuggling. He said: “We are very conscious of the crucial role of the Customs in protecting the poultry industry by curtailing the smuggling of poultry products into the country, especially through our border posts. “As an evidence of the service’s commitment to the protection of the local poultry industry, we have improved on the seizures of smuggled poultry products through various border posts. “There has been daily increase in the rate of seizures of poultry products, compared to seizures of other products. For instance, in 2009, the rate was one per cent per count of total seizures by the service.”

But by 2013, the seizures rose to eight per cent per count of total confiscations made by the service. The National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, said that over 1.2 million tons of smuggled poultry products, mainly frozen chicken and turkey, had wrecked poultry farmers in the country. Oduntan, while commenting on the 2015 edition of the annual national poultry summit, said that the country’s 300,000 tons of local production was a far cry from what was presently smuggled into the country.

He warned that the industry was also threatened by the negative impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the introduction of the Common External Tariff (CET), which are discouraging local production. He, however, called for a policy advocacy and institutional linkages that would put poultry business on the path of excellence.