The Federal government has commenced the distribution of 37 Refrigerated meat vans to states for healthy transportation of meat from the abattoirs to the markets or final consumers.
This is just as the government banned the transportation of meat in an unhealthy and unhygienic manner across the country.
Speaking at the National Stakeholders Meeting on Meat Hygiene/Meat Haulage System in Nigeria, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar said the concerns expressed for not ensuring the safety of our foods have caused us a huge amount of money in foreign exchange, through the technical barriers for trades at international markets.
He said Food Safety is an international phenomenon that encompasses all segments of the food value chain, from production, processing, transportation, and marketing up to the table, where the last consumer does the needful.
Dr Abubakar said unsafe handling of food has continued to limit Nigeria’s full participation in the trade of most agricultural commodities outside the shores of the country.
The Minister further stated that the conditions of most abattoirs in Nigeria today do not conform to global best practices that guarantee safety for the transporter, the carcass and the consumers.
“The practice is undesired, especially where carcasses had to be transported on Wheel Barrows, Open Vans, Pick-up Vans, Tricycle and even Motorcycles, thereby exposing the meat to high-level contamination and quality compromise.
“With regards to meat haulage and abattoir management, if you travel outside of the shores of this country, you will agree with me that our country has a lot to do to improve meat delivery services in line with other developed parts of the world. This cannot be achieved by the government alone.
“In order to demonstrate our commitment to revive meat haulage system in Nigeria, arising from this meeting, we are going to flag-off distribution of Refrigerated Meat Vans to the Butchers/Meat Seller’s Unions/Association to commence the process of modernized meat haulage system in their respective States. In addition, Butchers/Meat Seller’s Unions and Associations are advised to approach the Bank of Agriculture and other private investors to acquire more refrigerated meat vans for their operations.
The Minister said “with collaborations with Financial Institutions and private investors, we expected that each state of the federation should start with at least five Refrigerated Meat Vans including the one that will be donated free from the Federal Government through my Ministry.
He, therefore, said “henceforth, anyone caught transporting meat in contravention of the modern meat haulage protocols, we will be left with no option than to have his/her carcass(es) confiscated”.
The National President of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma said the initiative will affect the livestock sub-sector positively.
He said the sub-sector is a multi-trillion business but it is left in the hands of untrained practitioners beginning from the producers who are mostly Fulanis down to the transporters, the dealers up to the processors who are the butchers.
“This very program is a welcome development, it is a program that we have been looking for, and this is a step taken to begin to modernize the livestock sub-sector of the economy that is what we have been yearning for.
“What is left for the Minister now is to begin to train the producers who are mostly the pastoralists. Let us begin to see positive engagements coming at the place of the pastoralists who are the real producers”, he said.
The Director Federal Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, Dr Maimuna Abdullahi Habbib said “I feel great, I feel fulfilled, because I have been thinking of how to handle this situation and to ensure that people get safe and wholesome meat from the abattoirs to the markets.
“We have seen people carrying meats on their shoulders in tricycles or motorbikes and other means that are very unhygienic, and food safety is being threatened but today, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development has donated 37 refrigerated vans to all the 36 states including FCT to ensure that these meat is being conveyed from abattoir to market safely to avoid unwholesomeness”.
She said the Minister also encouraged the butchers to key into the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) program to provide more vehicles to them at one digit interest rates to be able to have more vehicles.
