Smuggling of imported poultry products not likely to end soon

Smuggling of poultry products is not likely to end any time soon as local production continually fails to meet domestic demand, BusinessDay findings have shown.

Most of the bans placed on poultry products have not been effective and have made no real impact on actual foreign imports. Smuggling poultry products, especially chicken and turkey, have become a big business for importers of these products.

Africa biggest economy needs more than two million metric tonnes of poultry products annually to meet local demand. Nigerian farmers are only able to produce 300,000 metric tonnes, leaving a wide gap of more than 1.7 million metric tonnes.

“Out of this figure, smuggled chicken accounts for 1.2 million metric tonnes annually,” said Ayoola Odutan, President, Poultry Association of Nigeria, 2015 Nigeria Poultry Summit.

With the gap between supply and demand, smugglers are encouraged by the inability of local suppliers to meet demand for these products.

“Smuggling persists because of the gap in demand and supply and it will not stop until Nigeria increases local production capacity,” said Edobong Akpabio, executive director, Living Green Farms and Garden Foundation.

Akpabio also noted that for the country to address this issue of smuggling, state governments should deliberately provide land for poultry businesses and establish funding for the development of poultry value chain.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has strongly warned against the consumption of imported poultry products, threatening to take action against smugglers or dealers found with the banned products

Imported poultry products, especially chicken and turkey, have been identified as causative agent in non- communicable diseases (NCDs) and antibiotics resistance. Some of these health conditions include hypertension, kidney disease, and cancer.