DUBLIN: Five containers of beans exported from Nigeria to the Republic of Ireland have been rejected and returned by the importers after the products were received with heaps of weeviles.
Currently, exportation of beans from Nigeria is banned by the European Union, but it is not clear when the rejected product was exported.
Nigerian producers will resume exportation of beans to EU countries by June this year, according to the minister of state for Agriculture, Mr Heineken Lopobiri.
Inspecting the rejected agricultural product at the PTML Terminal, Tin Can Port Lagos yesterday, the minister of state for Agriculture, Lopobiri said that the containers were returned because heaps of weevils were detected in them by Republic of Island Quarantine Service.
The minister described the return of the containers as a national embarrassment, saying that the containers were exported without the knowledge of the Nigerian Agriculture and Quarantine Service.
