Current statistics show that Nigeria spends about N600billion yearly on smuggled frozen foods. Obviously, when juxtaposed with its attendant health and economic implications, it is no good news for the country.

Over the years, government has been coming up with various to safeguard the health of its citizenry. Among such effort is the mandate given to Nigerian Customs Services to protect the nation’s borders against smuggling of banned goods especially food items. However, because of the porous nature of the Nigerian borders, unwholesome food items still find their way to tables of many Nigerians. Among such unwholesome food is poultry product.

Smuggled poultry products pose grave danger to consumers, handlers and environment.

Nigerians deserve the best quality in what they consume. The risks inherent in consumption of products that are not thoroughly scrutinized are enormous. Stakeholders in the poultry industry are aware of these and are committed to producing fresh, healthy poultry products for the populace.

But these local producers continue to face daunting obstacles posed by activities of smugglers of poultry meat into the country. These smuggling activities have grown in spite of government restriction on importation. Experts have discovered that the break in cold chains during smuggling encourages a build-up of high microbial load, rendering such consignments unhealthy and unfit for human consumption. Of significance to policy makers is the fact that it is difficult to trace the sources of infection or other forms of contamination in smuggled poultry meat, whereas locally produced chicken meat can be traced to sources of infection or other forms of contamination.

They have expressed great economic and health concern on persistent smuggled poultry meat into the Nigeria market. In a statewide assessment of frozen poultry meat, it was discovered that 85 percent of frozen poultry product consumed by Nigerians are imported.

A research sponsored by Poultry Association of Nigeria, led by Prof. Tewe, to investigate the level of antibiotics in meat including poultry products discovered high microbial load of Salmonella and E. Coli app, contaminants like formalin and veterinary drug residues of Antibiotics. According to them the pathogen, Salmonella spp is the leading cause of death among those with high consumption of smuggled poultry meat.

They confirmed that these bacteria can provoke a number of symptoms of disease within 72 hours of exposure and could last four to seven days, necessitating hospital admission in some cases. Infection with Salmonella spp could be life-threatening, especially to those with weak immune systems such as infants and the elderly. They said chronic exposure to the bacteria could result in arthritic symptoms. Unfortunately the hospital systems and healthcare service providers may be grappling with infections originating from such sources as smuggled chickens, but confusing the cases with other clinical conditions that present similar symptoms.

During a recent scientific presentation on the Economic and health implications of smuggled poultry products organized by the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), the National President, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan , observed that while locally-farmed poultry meats are sold without any preservatives, the smuggled poultry meat is preserved with hazardous chemicals. He revealed that formalin load in all smuggled poultry products ranges from 42.9 to 63.3ml/kg according to surveys. This portends serious danger for the consumers as some these toxic chemicals are known to be carcinogenic.

Oduntan, while expressing concern that the large amount of illegal imports is putting poultry farmers out of business, noted that despite a ban on chicken imports imposed in 2000, imported chicken still finds its way to the market. He disclosed that recently a consignment of over 16,000 cartons worth N70million was intercepted by customs, but noted that, unfortunately this is just like a drop in the ocean. He alleged that imported chicken is cheaper because they have not been allowed to mature naturally. They are being pumped with formaldehydes which are used to preserve dead bodies. The cheap product had made it difficult for local producers to compete and erode incentives and margins.

A poultry farmer concerned about competition from smuggling had noted that “our borders are porous, if I make the investment of slaughtering and dressing these chickens and then freezing them, since the ones smuggled into the country are cheaper and majority of Nigerians are still poor or have low purchasing power, they would go for the smuggled ones”.

The Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhi, had warned “the general public to beware that the consumption of smuggled poultry products is unsafe for their health. Buying smuggled products not only encourage economic sabotage, it also damages our health”. He urged all that are involved in the poultry value chain and other livestock products to adhere to regulations in repositioning the industry for greater demand.

Orhi further said that NAFDAC has approved the sampling of food animal products at the ports of entry, open market and abattoirs for veterinary drugs residues, adding that it has also approved the mass production of adverse event/effects and products defeats forms for pharma-vigilance activities of veterinary medicines.

PAN National President disclosed that Nigerian Consumption is put at 1.5million tonnes, while production is estimated to be about 350,000mt tones, leaving a demand and supply gap of 1.2million tones which is met through smuggling. He noted that to fully utilize the balance of the industry’s installed capacity of additional 350,000mt will translate to significant benefits through more job creation in form of 350,000 new jobs in maize production, 75,000 new jobs in processing and 500,000 new jobs in ancillary raw materials, products and services.

He noted that reducing smuggling by just 30 percent would result in the creation of about one million jobs adding that “The future of the Nigerian poultry industry hinges delicately on firm decisions on the part of the policy makers to reverse the current unwholesome trends that tend to tilt the balance more in favour of smugglers while putting the local producers in jeopardy. The investments of local producers need urgent safeguard and support that would enable them to remain competitive in the face of smugglers onslaught” he observed.

Oduntan further stated that as western markets shrink, smugglers have set their sights on Africa as the new frontier of smuggling products through Benin Republic into Nigeria. He added that with proposed ECOWAS free trade agreement being implemented in 2014, problem could become worse as is seen in oil palm sector where imported product is disguised as West African product and smuggled into Nigeria.

To increase the profitability and sustainability of the poultry production sector, PAN recommended that poultry farm agent organization should be recognized as tax free entities due to their moderate margins and the fact that they have set out to create social impact. They also canvassed that the Nigeria Incentive Risk Sharing Agricultural Loan (NIRSAL) should support commercial banks to issue agricultural loans at 14/15 percent with an interest drawback program of up to 50 percent and ensure that poultry farmers’ organizations get priority.

PAN also advised that 0 percent duty waiver should be given to implements as related to the smallholder farmers. In addition, farm agents should be eligible to fast track the clearing of farm implements, given that farming is a time sensitive operation. They added that government support programs targeted at smallholders should be channeled through farmer agents due to their relationship with the farmers and opportunity to maximize impact. They also urged the government to protect the Nigerian poultry from subsidized imports

The association further suggested that government should encourage Nigerian customs services to enforce the ban on importation of frozen chicken and turkey, collaborate with NAFDAC and SON to locate and close down warehouses, depots, markets and sales points of these illegal food products. They urged that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should launch a massive campaign to educate Nigerians on the negative health, economic and socio political impacts of illegal frozen chicken and turkey.

They urged close collaboration between the Federal Ministry of health and other relevant MDAs to discourage the consumption of imported frozen chicken and turkey by launching a campaign highlighting the negative health implications. Implementation of the ban on poultry products would save the economy $3billion yearly, create 1million new jobs in the first two years, reduce the country’s health bill and improve productivity through reduction in cases of bacterial enteritis due to Salmonella and other food borne diseases.