Subject agro-products to quarantine checks, NIQS tells exporters

Exporters of snails and other agricultural products should subject the goods to quarantine inspection and certification before dispatch or risk having the items seized and destroyed, the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service has warned.

It said the commodities must be subjected for inspection whether they were being used for personal or trade purposes, as such items could be destroyed once they arrived at the destination country if not certified.

The Director, Animal Quarantine Department, NAQS, Idris Dakat, said food and agricultural products that evaded local pre-export verification of conformity formalities were liable to enforced wastage abroad.

A statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the agency’s Head of Media, Communication and Strategies, Chigozie Nwodo, stated that Dakat was reacting to a recent export fiasco in which 15 Nigerian giant land snails were impounded by United States Customs and Border Protection