How packaging can boost export Packaging is vital to agro export success. Farm Products need to be preserved till arrival at target market is ascertained. This requires the use of qualitative materials which happens to be a challenge to many farmers who are looking at the export market. DANIEL ESSIET reports Fresh produce, such as fresh fish, fruits and vegetables are sought after by many households. Unfortunately, some fresh produce only originate from certain parts of the world and must be transported to other parts. And, with that comes problems, such as the quality and freshness of the exported agricultural produce. For instance, in the horticultural sub-sector, about 30 per cent of the produce is lost to inadequate infrastructure and insufficient modern post-harvest technologies. Chief Executive, Anjorin & Atanda Investment Limited, Sunday Anjorin explained that fresh horticultural produce has limited shelf-life ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. Therefore, good packaging is required not only for produce preservation and protection, but also for safe transportation during storage and handling. Concerns are mounting on produce such as vegetables, fruits, and cut flowers which have grown steadily to become the single largest category in world agricultural trade, accounting for over 20 per cent of such trade in recent years. On the average, horticultural exports of Sub-Saharan Africa brings in revenue in excess of $2 billion yearly. In view of this, quality packaging has become key in the agro export markets. Anjorin said packaging plays a crucial role in creating value-added packs, which some importers require. There is also growing concern among consumers on food safety certification and compliance with environmental and ethical standards. Increasing exports and stringent export market requirements have also influenced the packaging trend. Meeting these requirements presents a challenge. At present, vegetable and fresh produce entrepreneurs focus on exporting the products to Europe, China and Asia. Factors to be considered include early delivery, taste, quantity/volume, size, phytosanitary measures, and quality and all these affect packaging consideration. The quality of F&V resulted from seed, cultivation, preservation and transportation. Processed F&V exporters face problem of seed availability which result in low productivity and unreliable quality. European Union (EU) buyers require on-time delivery; and good quality. To satisfy good quality, exporters should follow GAP. Far distance also causes the problem of proper maintenance of good quality fresh product to the market. Exporters of oranges face challenges too. They have to place them in moulded pulp trays with cavities for individual oranges. Each tray contains about 20/25/30 oranges depending upon the size and about five of such trays are placed in a corrugated fibreboard box. Similarly, the Nigeria Quarantine Service encouraged vegetable exporters to package their produce in three-ply or five-ply corrugated fibreboard boxes with ventilation holes depending upon the capacity. The capacity of these boxes varies from 5kg to 7kg to 10 kg. Generally, the box is lidded type (0306) but for some vegetables sometimes, RSC (0201) box is also used. Packaging, according to Anjorin, doesn’t just protect and keep fresh vegetables but it tells a story of where it is from. Although preservation and protection of products are important, he noted that they are no longer enough as packaging as a front-line ambassador to market and sell products, as well as to ensure compliance with emerging standards through certification, is coming to the fore.” Hence, it is important farmers learn and benefit from the exporting advantages that higher-quality packaging brings. President, National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN),Tola Faseru said the industry is facing new challenges and needs to continue to adapt and upgrade its capabilities. This is as a result of emerging regulations and standards, as well as health, environment and security concerns, notably in Europe, North America and Japan, consequently, creating new and increasing demands on the packaging of agro exports. For this reason, he advised small business exporters to develop the mindset that they are competing in international markets and packaging is an important part of that competition. The impact is great on exporters of cashew nuts. Exporting cashew kernels now requires volume, a large investment in factory, equipment and raw material to achieve international expectations. The international market buys predominantly full container loads of cashew kernels. Buyers in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East purchase vacuum-packaged cashew kernels. Two vacuum-packed 25-pound plastic bags fill one carton; 700 cartons, or 15 MT, fill a 20-footcontainer. While there are 26 grades of cashew kernels sold on the international market, buyers mostly accept containers with one to six different grades. The 26 grades are based on the size of the kernel (number of kernels per pound): a low number, such as 180, indicates large kernels, and a high number, such as 450, indicates small kernels, The normal packaging used for the export of kernels is air-tight cans of 25lbs (11.34 kg) weight capacity. The packaging material needs to be impermeable, since cashew kernels are subject to rancidity and go stale very quickly. He explained that the quality of cashew kernels that is exported depends on the quality of the raw nuts. For this reason, he said the exporters monitor the process from harvesting to shipment to ensure the quality of their raw cashews. These include ensuring that the nuts is harvested only after they have fallen to the ground, sun-dried immediately after harvesting and that during the drying process (which normally lasts two to three days), the nut density should not exceed 20 kg per square metre. He said exporters of raw cashew nuts must ship in jute bags. Following harvest, he said farmers typically sundry and bag cashew nuts and store them in their houses in polypropylene bags. The bags, according to him, do not allow adequate air circulation, which is not generally a problem if marketing occurs promptly. But the delay allowed the cashew nuts to become damp and mouldy. The extent of the quality deterioration, he noted, was realised only after shipments that were exported were rejected as below contract standards. He stressed that deterioration in export crop quality was serious and that developing a competitive private sector processing industry would create jobs. He also stated that raw cashew nuts are not processed in the country as they are exported to India and Vietnam. In these two countries, the nuts are processed and then sold via international traders to European and North Americans who then distribute them to consumer markets.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:44:55 +0000
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