Agric Ministry to probe exportation of low quality yams to US

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, has said the Federal Government will investigate the consignment of poor quality yams exported from Nigeria to the United States.

Ogbeh had flagged off the exportation of the first consignment of the commodity from the Apapa port, Lagos to Europe and the United States on June 29, as part of moves to diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy and earn much-needed foreign exchange.

The minister, who briefed State House correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC), which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, said his ministry had been mandated to carry out the investigation.

“I have been mandated to brief on one or two developments in the agricultural sector. One, is a new development about the consignment of yams which was exported from here to the US which according to report we heard today, was found to be of poor quality.

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

On the assertion that the export of the consignment of yam was done in violation of the Export Prohibition Bill, which prohibits export of items like yam, Ogbeh announced that the National Assembly would soon repeal the law.

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