Market Prospects for Groundnut in West Africa COMMON FUND ...

1 January 1999 (official journal of the European Communities, 17 July 1998,
L 201/93 and L 201/101).
European Commission Regulation EC No. 1525/9 set maximum
permitted levels of aflatoxin B 1 at 2μg/kg (or parts per billion, ppb), and the
limits for total aflatoxins (B 1 + B 2 + G 1 + G 2 ) at 4 ppb in groundnuts
intended for direct human consumption or as an ingredient in foodstuffs. The
limits for groundnuts to be subjected to further processing by sorting or some
other physical treatment prior to human consumption were set at 8 ppb for
aflatoxin B 1, and 15 ppb for total aflatoxins (B 1 + B 2 + G 1 + G 2 ).
In general, the new EU aflatoxin standards are seen as having greatly
increased the risk inherent in an already “hazardous” industry – risk, which is
not well borne given the additional pressure it puts on a market of inherently
low profitability.
Price implications have followed accordingly, only adding to the risk
borne by the various market stakeholders. Since the EU code was established,
it has become clear that the quality of a given crop has become much more
important than its total size in determining prices, causing great difficulty in
the prediction and forecasting of market trends based on crop development, as
was the case in the past. Since in some cases reliable testing is only performed
with the arrival of a given shipment in port, potential price distortions may
create havoc along the supply chain, as prices calculated well in advance might
prove insufficient to guarantee specified quality in required volume.
As a partial result, European end-users are primarily and increasingly
interested in minimizing their risk by obtaining ‘aflatoxin-free’ (or ‘aflanegative’)
groundnut. Importers have come to share this concern, pointing out
that where any aflatoxin exists, one cannot be confident that any method of
analysis will adequately safeguard the buyer.
Despite Commission Directive (98/53/CE), the practical difficulties of
adequate and representative sampling, and the variability and inconsistency of
analytical methods – particularly by pre-shipment inspectors – only add to
these quality-related insecurities.
One major importer provided a graphic example, of a hypothetical case
in which 20% of the lots of a given shipment are found to be contaminated
above EU regulations – say 20 containers out of a total shipment of 100.
Following this initial analysis, if the remaining 80 containers of ‘approved’
groundnuts are analyzed a second time, it is most likely that 20% of these will
be found to be contaminated with aflatoxin above EU regulations – and so on.
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