The Federal Government is urging the European Union to suspend its Deforestation Regulation, citing major concerns over its impact on the country’s agricultural exports and economy. The regulation, which went into effect on June 29, 2023, and is set for full implementation by December 2024, bans products linked to deforestation or forest degradation from the EU market.<\/p>\n
This move could severely affect Nigeria’s commodities such as timber, cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, and cattle, as well as related products like chocolate, leather, and furniture. Companies exporting these products to the EU must meet strict requirements to prove their goods are deforestation-free, which could lead to a loss of livelihoods for millions of Nigerian farmers and further depreciation of the Naira.<\/p>\n
Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, emphasized the need for collaboration between government bodies and private sector stakeholders to address these concerns. A National Task Force has been established to develop a national strategy for compliance with the regulation, including forest mapping and creating a national traceability system for agricultural value chains.<\/p>\n
The task force will also engage with the EU to explore extending the regulation’s deadline and seek alternative markets for Nigeria’s agricultural products, such as China, Russia, and Belarus. Notably, the International Cocoa Organization, comprising all cocoa-producing nations, has called for a two-year postponement of the EUDR deadline.<\/p>\n
Kyari reiterated Nigeria’s commitment to sustainable agriculture but stressed the need for a fair and balanced approach. The suspension of the EUDR has been backed by other nations, including Germany, Latin American countries, the USA, and India, as well as the Director General of the World Trade Organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Federal Government is urging the European Union to suspend its Deforestation Regulation, citing major concerns over its impact on the country’s agricultural exports and economy. The regulation, which went into effect on June 29, 2023, and is set for full implementation by December 2024, bans products linked to deforestation or forest degradation from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":51292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[1116],"class_list":["post-51291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuja-reports","tag-eu"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51296,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51291\/revisions\/51296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}