US rejects Nigeria’s yam over poor quality – Minister

-Minster of Agriculture discloses that USA turned down the yams exported from this country because of the poor quality.

The minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, says the United States of America, USA, rejected yams export from Nigeria due to poor quality of the yams.

Naija News gathered that Nigeria, in an effort to reduce dependence on oil and increase revenue from the agricultural sector exported yams to US, United Kingdom and China in June.

Ogbeh therefore, vowed to investigate both the exporting company and officials of the ministry’s department of quarantine for allowing low quality goods to the the country.

He said: “Some consignment of yams were exported from Nigeria to the United States and according to reports we have today, they were found to be of poor quality.

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“We will be investigating both the company that exported it and our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here.”

Nigeria does not rank amongst the world’s highest exporters of yam despite claims that the country have 60% of the world’s yam production.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Service, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) have been saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that yams exported were checked thoroughly and certified.

Others are Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC).