When the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) launched operation “Hawk Descend’’ it was to defend the 2003 ban on the importation of frozen poultry products.
It was also with the aim to achieve national food security, protect the economy against saboteurs and ultimately revive the moribund poultry sub-sector of meat industry.
The special operation, was launched at the Seme border, Lagos early in July by the then Comptroller-General of the NCS, Abdullahi Dikko Inde.
The operation is being conducted in the South-Western borders covering Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states for an initial period of three months from July to September 2015.
During this period, NCS operatives will intercept smuggled products, seize and destroy them in line with extant laws and regulations to stimulate development of the poultry industry.
The customs boss, who was represented at the launch by the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Enforcement, Musa Tahir, enumerated what the operation would achieve.
“Like the wayward chick, there will be no hiding place for smuggled chicken in our land. Our hawks will descend and mop them out of circulation.
“We have thousands of patriotic Nigerians who have invested their hard-earned money in the local poultry sector.
“Through their investments, they have created a long value chain that provides direct and indirect employment for millions of Nigerians.
“For this, the sector that requires nurturing and protection by all Nigerians as unfair competitions from smuggled chickens threaten their investments and capacity to play their roles as employers of labour.
“Government in its wisdom has banned the importation but smugglers are relentless but we know how relentless they are. We won’t allow them to thrive,’’ he explained.
Also speaking, Onallo Akpa of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), expressed joy that stakeholders came together to fight a common cause.
He said the battle involved all Nigerians, urging those with useful information about smuggling of poultry products to avail same to relevant agencies.
Mrs Maureen Ebigbeyi, who represented the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), urged Nigerians to stop the consumption of imported frozen poultry as they remained health hazards.
“We’re putting measures in place to ensure Nigerians consumed only safe products by having stringent products registration procedures. Frozen poultry has a lot of risks as we are not sure of the processing.’’
The question now is: What has customs achieved with the operation? “Can Nigerian poultry farmers meet the local consumption demands?
The NCS says Operation Hawk Descend has seized over N45 billion worth of poultry products smuggled into the country since its launch.
Mr Wale Adeniyi, the Public Relations Officer of NCS, made the disclosure in a recent statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The statement said that the duty paid value was the highest recorded since the launch of the operation in July.
According to the statement a breakdown shows that seizures by Ogun Command are 6, 565 cartons and duty paid value is N2, 937,441.00.
“Federal Operation Unit (FOU) A (Lagos) has its quantity of seizure as 1,395 cartons and duty paid value is N7, 533,000.00.
“FOU B (Kaduna) quantity of seizure is 6,000 cartons and duty paid value is N35,000,000 and the total quantity is 13,960 cartons valued at N 45,470,441,’’ the statement said.
It said that assessing the seizure trend, the Comptroller-General of Customs, noted that smugglers of poultry products were exploring routes in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country.
The customs spokesman said that the special operation had made life difficult for smugglers in the South-Western flank.
According to the statement, Abdullahi commended the FOU in Lagos and Kaduna for their huge seizures, adding that the FOU in the two states had put other commands on alert.
“Last week, FOU Operatives in Kaduna apprehended two trucks conveying smuggled poultry products at Gidan Wali, along Babana border in Niger State,’’ it added.
The statement said that the success so far recorded by Operation Hawk Descend had attracted commendation from the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).
However, the gains made from the operation also left farmers to enhance their production, satisfy local demand and ultimately smile to their banks.
But this can only be if their dilapidated farms are revived to contribute their quota to the production by the majors in the industry.
The National President of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Dr Ayoola Oduntan, said that “we are not producing enough because of smuggling but we have started to see that reaction now.
“Increased production has started. Farmers are opening up abandoned poultry projects and restocking them with chicken.
“The demand for broiler has risen significantly; farmers are increasing capacities and employing workers to be able to very quickly meet up that difference.
“But if there is something keeping you down, unless that thing is removed, you cannot come up.
“Nigerians has to be patient; we have to be willing to make little sacrifice for a short time for the long term benefit of the country.
“To expect that smuggled chicken which has ruled the country for so many years will immediately be replaced by local production, is unfair.
“It will not be automatic, but within the shortest possible time, poultry farmers are gearing up for the expectation of Nigerians and they will satisfy it.
“We are definitely expecting more local processing in the country,’’ Oduntan said, noting that the first thing was for the demand of the product to increase.
“Before now, there was minimal demand for locally produced poultry because of the smuggled products. So, what drives production in any fields of economy is the creation of demand.
“So, the first thing the government has done through the Nigerian Customs Service is helping to create the demand for farmers to go into production.
“We will need support in terms of finance; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has worked very hard in that direction but we need both the
CBN and the Bank of Agriculture and possibly the Bank of Industry to come up with specific products that will stimulate growth of the industry.
“Of course, at various levels, education and training should also be included but the major support that we require is finance that will first of all be used to reinvigorate the thousands of abandoned farms.
“And then, funding to expand existing ones and also funding to build new modern poultry complexes to be able to meet this demand that is being generated,’’ he said.
Also, poultry farmers in Lagos State, say that enforcement of the ban has brought blessing to the industry as it was encouraging local production to satisfy local demand.
They noted that many poultry farms that had become dilapidated and a few that managed to operate did so below their installed capacity with the attendant negative effect on employment and the economy were being revived.
Correspondents of NAN who visited some farms in Ikorodu, Abulegba, Bariga, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway and Ikorodu-Sagamu Expressway report that many of the farms had closed business.
However, even with some of them having been taken over by weeds and the farm buildings destroyed by termites, their proprietors expressed the hope of their bouncing back with adequate government support.
The poultry farmers told the NAN that the enforcement was restoring their confidence in the meat production industry of the economy apart from shielding the people’s health from diseases.
They also said that the government should subsidise meat production equipment that were not being manufactured in the country, ensure good roads and steady power supply for preservation of products.
The farmers expressed the hope that they would once more be back in production and meet local consumption needs and for export.
They also said that the development if sustained would enable the state and federal governments to address the issues facing farmers in their domains.
Contributing, Mr Wale Oyekoya, Chairman, Agriculture and Non-Oil Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said that poultry farmers expected the government to do more than just enforcing the ban.
The chairman said that challenges of high cost of production, irregular power supply, lack of access roads and funds as well as governments policy somersault were hindering growth of the industry.
Oyekoya, also the Managing Director, BAMA Farms Ltd., Bariga, Lagos, said that federal and state governments needed to address the challenges to ensure poultry farmers met the nation’s consumption needs.
He recalled that recently about 50 farmers along Lekki-Epe axis lost their farmlands to the proposed International Airport Development in the area.
“This shows how insensitive the government is to farming apart from being reluctant to providing alternative,’’ he said.
According to him, BAMA Farms has about 120 hectares of farmland where it is doing integrated farming activities.
He said many farmers along that axis had invested millions in their farm project, adding such a development was not what farmers needed to move forward.
Dr Adegbemi Onigemo, a poultry farmer and Head, Animal Production Department, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu said: “The enforcement of the ban is long overdue but has come.
“In fact, it is a blessing to Nigeria because apart from the health implications, it will lead to the development of the poultry sub-sector of the animal production industry.
“There are so many poultry farms that are now comatose or operating at less than 10 per cent of their installed capacity due to lack of profit resulting from importation.
“The Lagos State Polytechnic’s commercial poultry has a capacity for 5,000 laying birds, 10,000 rearing pens, and 500-stock for training.
“Recently, TETFund also constructed a 3,600-capacity automated laying pen and a 2,500-capacity brooder house, all costing about N25 million. All these facilities are lying fallow.
“So, the ban will provide the market that all these things (meat) will go into and farmers will produce profitably, expand and create more jobs.’’
According to Onigemo, whose 1,000 birds capacity poultry currently houses less than 400, the situation is common across Ikorodu.
He added that “some farms who hitherto produced turkey and broilers all year round, now produce only turkey during the yuletide.
“If you juxtapose that with what is happening in other local government areas and states of the federation, you then have a picture of how importation has crippled the industry’’.
He added that government should subsidise the cost of equipment, poultry feeds and enhance the capacity of local producers to increase production, saying that “this will reduce the farmers’ production cost’’.
Mr Toheed Animashaun, the Farm Manager, Mashaun Farms, situated along the Ikorodu-Sagamu Expressway, told NAN that if the enforcement was sustained the farm could resume broilers rearing for meat production.
“This farm was established more than 35 years ago, and we have seven pens with installed capacity to produce 2,000 turkeys, 8,000 layers and 10,000 broilers.
“At the moment, we produce only 1,000 turkeys and 8,000 layers, while the broiler production has long been halted since the market has not been viable.
“Also, our 5,000-capacity cold room and a processing plant have been grounded, while two delivery cold vans in our fleet have been sold.
“Today, we employ only 12 fulltime workers instead of 20 engaged in the past,’’’ he said.
Animashaun urged the Federal Government to subsidise the importation of poultry equipment not currently manufactured in the country to reduce the burden on farmers.
For Wale Akinfolarin, Chairman, Adusrin Ventures Ltd, a Lagos-based poultry processing plant, one major problem that may hinder farmers from satisfying demands is insufficient equipment, especially Blast Freezers.
Akinfolarin said that the Federal Government should strive to make blast freezers easily affordable by entrepreneurs to enable the poultry business to thrive.
Blast freezing is a means through which large volumes of processed poultry products are preserved within the shortest time possible without chemical preservatives.
Through blast freezing the taste of the poultry product is enhanced since they are devoid of chemical preservatives.
“We are particularly happy about government’s enforcement on the ban of poultry products because this will encourage frozen foods sellers to patronise locally processed ones.
“With the recent enforcement of the 2003 ban on imported frozen poultry products, people are becoming aware of the local producers of frozen poultry products but they need to know more.
“If government can have a list of processors, they can find ways to motivate them by providing blast freezers and plucking machines to encourage large scale production.
“We produce a minimum of 2,000 birds daily in this premises; you can imagine what it will be if we have assistance from the government?
“It will indeed enhance our output, definitely we will need more money,’’ he said.
The entrepreneur added that through the use of blast freezers the incidence of bacteria that was usually inherent in chicken products is reduced to the barest minimum.
Akinfolarin also identified lack of take-off capital as another hindrance to the growth of poultry processing.
He added that the interception of their products by law enforcement officers and the demand for bribe usually led to losses because of the nature of live poultry products which had short life span.
The processor said that his broiler farm had a capacity for 30,000 birds, noting that the company had other contracts with indigenous farmers who provided birds.
“We are strictly into broiler production; that is, very soft chicken, it is basically produced for meat purposes which is often white meat and the best health wise.
“We have been promoting local chicken production and with our little effort, we hope that Nigeria will move forward.
“We rear chicken ourselves and we have other indigenous contract farmers who rear for us. We presently have a 30,000 capacity broiler farm as a backup to the system.
“With this we are members of the Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP), a World Bank-Assisted project and it has assisted in ensuring that standard is maintained,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, some poultry farmers at the Fish Farm Estate in Ikorodu, many of whom operate 40 per cent below their 1,000-bird installed capacity, say the enforcement has begun to bear fruits.
They noted that their experiences during the recent Muslim Sallah festival of Eid-el-Fitr had emboldened them to plan to introduce broiler and cockerel production for meat.
Miss Juliet Philip, one of such poultry farmers, told NAN that “the demand was so huge that chickens that buyers ordinarily would undervalue or bluff farmers over were in high demand.
“In fact, people came literarily falling over themselves in search of live chicken to slaughter for the festival.
“Looking back, I regret not having stocked broilers; I would have made good money’’.
Another Farm Manager, Mr Patrick Bolujo, said “I linked at least three frozen poultry vendors in the community where I reside to farms where they could purchase live chicken.
“So, if the enforcement on the ban is sustained farms that have about 1,000 birds may increase to 5,000; those that have 10,000 may grow to 50,000 birds.
“This will translate to creation of more jobs, and in no distant time we too will have enough capacity to export’’.
On his part, Mr Tosin Owolabi, the Co-owner and Farm Manager, Soyinka Farms Ltd., urged both states and the Federal Government to support poultry farmers during disease outbreaks to reduce loss.
“In 2005, I visited a Lagos-based farm that had the capacity to produce 200,000 layer birds, including turkey, chicken, ducks and geese with automatic feeding, grading.
“Few years later, operations were grounded when it was attacked by Bird Flu. Sadly, too, the owner died two months after.
“Also, another farm in Ikorodu, which had similar facility and capacity for 100,000 birds and supplied big eateries in the state suffered similar fate.
“If the owners of these farms were confident of government’s support they possibly will still be in business today and continue to employ people.
“In fact, government’s involvement could guarantee speedy containment of such outbreaks,’’ Owolabi said.
Owolabi, who maintained that local demand can be met, said government should financially support passionate would-be as well as genuine poultry farmers to shore up production.
“I currently have 800 layers instead of 1,000.
“With N1 million, I can produce 10,000 broilers that weigh between 2kg and 2.5kg every two months and sell for about N1,500 given the current market trend.
“It is better than buying 1kg of frozen turkey that sells for N1,200.
“So, who says poultry farmers can’t consistently meet market demand if encouraged by government and buyers with the right support,’’ he added.
The farmers therefore, expressed the hope that the Buhari-led administration would restore hope in the country’s agriculture sub-sector, especially poultry and meat production business.
In Ogun, along the Lagos-Abeokuta road axis, the Manager of Oladipo Daniel Farms Ltd., Mr Akeem Ayodeji, regretted that in Nigeria policies were made but not implemented.
“Poultry farmers are hoping that the Nigeria Customs Service will not relax on the enforcement.
“The plight of poultry farmers will worsen if after few weeks the market is awash with banned frozen chickens.
“The local sellers and consumers have not been patronising poultry farmers and this scarcity will make them to look inward to source their supply.
“This ultimately will make poultry farmers to work harder to meet the increasing demand,’’ he said.
He, however, said that government needs to do more to address the issues that might hamper the poultry farmers’ determination to meet local demand.
According to him, along the Lagos-Abeokuta Road out of six farm houses in the area, only Oladipo Daniel farm has survived with just skeletal operations.
“We cannot even be involved in processing of chickens because of storage facility that would consume electricity among others,’’ he said.
Ayodeji said that government needed to urgently review the terms and conditions for accessing agriculture loans as it had made it difficult for real farmers to get loans to boost their operations.
But in spite of all these, locally processed chicken are found in eateries or fast food shops though not in such numbers as to satisfy the consumption needs of Nigerians.
Such products found in the eateries come mainly from the big farms like Chi Farms Ltd which produces and processes its products in Ibadan, the Oyo capital.
Others also widely patronised are from Obasanjo Farms Ltd., Ota, Ogun, BAMA Farms Nigeria Ltd., Bariga, Lagos, Best Foods Global Nigeria Ltd and Zartech Farms in Ibadan and many others across the country.
The fact remains that if the small farm holders contribute measurably to the output of the big ones, satisfying local demands will be easy.
But that will be if the government provides the needed support through finance and infrastructure to enable the sub-sector of the meat industry to grow.
The government should also ensure that the inhabitants of the border communities that help in effecting the seizure of the prohibited products that are smuggled into the country should be encouraged with provision of social amenities.
They should also be encouraged to oblige customs patrol officers reliable intelligence about the activities of poultry products smugglers and cold room operators.
Hotel and restaurant owners, the operators of fast food outlets and barbecue sellers should also shun smuggled poultry products for the enforcement of the ban to succeed.
