FG investigates export of poor quality yam to US

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday resolved to investigate a company that exported a consignment of yams found to be of poor quality to the United States of America. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, stated this while briefing State House reporters on the outcome of the council meeting chaired by President […]

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday resolved to investigate a company that exported a consignment of yams found to be of poor quality to the United States of America.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, stated this while briefing State House reporters on the outcome of the council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ogbeh, who did not name the company, said the ministry’s quarantine department would also be asked to check and find out why such a consignment left Nigeria.

“One of the developments we were mandated to brief you on is about the consignment of yams which was exported from here to the United States and which according to the reports we have today, was found to be of poor quality.

“The ministry will investigate because the ministry is not an exporter. The exporters are private people. We will investigate the company that exported it and ask our quarantine department to check and find out why such a consignment left here," he said.

Also, the minister said the government was concerned about the high cost of rice which, he noted  was the most consumed commodity in the country.

Ogbeh assured that by November, the price of rice would be substantially reduced.

He said: "Rice growers in Nigeria and rice millers have been meeting. We’re very concerned about the price of rice which is the most consumed commodity in Nigeria today.

“The two have agreed to a plan which we’ll be pursuing to arrive at a certain price which makes the price of paddy (the raw rice on the farm) stabilised at a point which makes the millers to take the paddy and mill it and put it in the market almost at very competitive prices almost as low as what the price of foreign rice, smuggled rice is sold for.

"This means in the next one month, since the harvest of rice has begun in earnest, the price of rice will become reasonable and cost of rice would have reduced substantially. We shall continue to pursue that. The ministry is also equipping farmers to make rice harvest easier so that the cost of rice harvest will substantially reduce."