Anambra State Committee On Exports have clamoured for huge investments in agricultural value chains in order to produce enough food for residents and to export abroad.
The meeting which held at the Head Of Service’ Conference Room, Jerome Udorji State Secretariat, Awka was themed “Enhancing Global Feasibility Of Made-In-Anambra Products” and was powered by Anambra State Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Welcoming the participants to the meeting, the Director of Commerce and secretary of the committee, Mrs Henrietta Basil-Ideh said that in line with the vision of Governor Chukwuma Soludo to make Anambra State an agricultural hub of the nation, it was important that Ndi Anambra also expanded their involvement in the agricultural value chain and to meet exportation benchmarks to place the state on the world map.
Mrs Basil-Ideh maintained that the keen interest of the committee is to facilitate the processing and exportation of non-oil products produced in the state.
She commended Governor Soludo for granting approval to the committee which she said will ensure that made-in-Anambra products meet international best standards.
On her part, a Professor of Food and Nutrition Security at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nkiru Meludu explained that the first step to meeting this international export standards is to produce organic foods while emphasizing that the vision of Governor Soludo is to guarantee food sufficiency, enough to eradicate hunger and boost the economy.
One of the members of the committee, Mrs Chinonyelum Agu advised farmers to venture into cultivation, processing and exportation of nuts and highlighted some of the challenges facing them while calling on the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to go back to the drawing board and ensure that standard is not compromised for products being exported out of Nigeria.
On his part, a representative of NAFDAC, Dr Sadiq Yunus maintained that their mission and vision is to prepare and certify crops good before exportation because the quality of the product determines how other countries will rate Nigeria, while when positive will increase exportation, create access to foreign exchange and cause a consequential impact on the stability of the naira.
Dr Onyinye Ogba in a lecture exposed participants on the right ways of processing, packaging and exporting to meet international best standards while pointing out that cassava is experiencing drought in the South East and asked farmers to do 
more as it concerns cultivation of cassava.
The stackholders were also of the opinion that oil export is fastly giving way as a major contributor to the nation’s GDP for other sectors and as such there is need for investments and innovations to be introduced into the agricultural sector to return it to major foreign exchange earner.
