NEPC moves to tackle cashew, rice export rejects

The executive director and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Nonye Ayeni, said it had commenced the process of tackling export rejects, especially of essential commodities like cashew and rice.

Ayeni, who disclosed this over the weekend at an interactive session for cashew and rice value chain actors in Abuja, also noted that acceptable agricultural practices, when adopted by the exporters, would boost the global sales while generating revenue for them and the country in general.

The event was held to implement the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in August 2023 between the NEPC and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH Market Oriented Value Chains for Jobs and Growth in the ECOWAS Region (GIZ-MOVE).

Recall that in 2022, it was estimated that Nigeria produced 5.4million metric tonnes of milled rice and about 300,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew nuts.

The NEPC boss said, “We deliberately invited small, medium and large-scale farmers, aggregators, processors, service providers and exporters. The programme will feature a mini display of products to enable an on-the-spot assessment of current production, packaging and labelling position.