THE Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), has warned that agro-allied producers in Nigeria who fall short of the organization’s standards will face stiff sanctions.
This warning was issued by SON’s Director-General/Chief Executive, Faruok Salim, on Thursday.
While reading the riot act at a workshop titled, “Standard Adherence” Catalyst for Trade held in Osogbo, Salim implored the producers to consistently uphold the organization’s standards in order to avoid its hammer.
The organization noted that Nigeria’s products are gaining global acceptance and as such, the Federal Government and the relevant regulatory agencies are working in synergy with stakeholders to ensure their products meet the quota set by foreign nations.
“Nigeria’s agro-allied products are sellable across the world and the body would not compromise its standards,” he said.
He informed that the organization held the event in order to lend weight to President Tinubu’s economy diversification agenda.
Salom noted that efforts to diversify into agricultural products were being chiefly engineered by SON as an avenue for revenue generation.
“The objective of this workshop is to create awareness on the importance of standards to ensure that the manufacturers, producers and processors meet up with the minimum requirements of the standards.
“We have standards for Garri, honey, dry and smoked fish e.t.c and looking at the focus of the current administration which is food security, the role of SON is to train, educate and create awareness among the agro-allied sector on quality production.
“Mandatory conformity assessment will prepare our local producer to produce products that meet up with the minimum requirement of the standards so that the product would be able to compete with foreign products.
“Any of the manufacturers that deviate from it are to be sanctioned because, our duty is to encourage and support them for production of quality and safe products,” he said.
The Chairman, Osun State Chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Sulaiman Araokanmi, also hailed SON for organizing the event, stating that it will contribute in no small way to improved knowledge in Agro-Allied production.
He emphasized that producers are now better sensitized on the need to maintain standards in conformity to SON.