NAHCO Restates Commitment to Upscaling Agric Exports

The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, (NAHCO aviance), has restated its commitment towards driving the growth and development of the nation’s agricultural export.

To this end, the company disclosed that it has expanded its facilities to boost the volume of exported products the company handles by 68 per cent.

The organisation said such initiative was required putting into consideration the federal government’s border closure policy, even as it stressed the need for Nigeria to produce enough for her consumption as well as export Farm products to boost the nation’s non-oil revenue.

Speaking at the recently concluded Africa Agric Expo held in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, Tokunbo Fagbemi, pointed out that the company’s aim was to eradicate a situation whereby Nigerian exported goods are returned to the country due to inability to meet international standard.

According to her, “The aviation handling firm is ready to meet alongside all other agency and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain, thereby collaborating with them to reduce wastage of agricultural products, especially as a result inadequate equipment to preserve them.”

Fagbemi maintained that, “NAHCO aviance has increased its volume of export of agricultural products by about 68 per cent having spent about $2 million to expand its facilities whilst improving security for exported products.

“In a few months, we are building a state-of-the-art cold storage hub for both existing and potential clients, including our new clients that want to trans-ship their goods through Nigeria with a bit of packaging.”

She explained: “Our findings from the airlines revealed that a lot of agricultural products exported are destroyed by the time they get to their destinations, which is largely caused by inadequate storage facilities.

“We just got an approval to develop a facility in our packaging warehouse, which will tackle that challenge because it will help exporters to package their products at a particular temperature rate to reduce the incidence of rejection in the International markets.”

Also, she called on farmers and other stakeholders to ensure that the farm produce meet international standards from their various farms, so as to decrease the likelihood of the farm products deteriorating, thereby it being rejected by the international market.