By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

Sona Agro Allied Foods   Limited has called on   the federal government to ban importation of biscuits and other snack products. Mr. Subramanian Murugesan, Managing Director of the company, made this call at a press briefing on the company’s strategic business plans for 2015, saying the importation of snack foods into the country is threatening the local food manufacturing sector.

He said that sustaining local snacks food production in Nigeria requires that the federal government curtail importation of snacks food products.                                                                                                     He said manufacturers expect lots of support from government both at the federal and state levels, particularly as the manufacturing sector experiences more of the problem of supply of goods, high priced energy input and infrastructure development, unreliable supply chain management alongside other logistics.

He stated that his company alongside other manufacturers expect availability and correctly priced raw materials of sufficient quality and quantity locally.

Murugesan also called on the government to make provision for a cheaper mode of transportation like railway.

Also speaking, Managing Director of Sona Industrial Gases Limited, Venkata Katikala, said that the gas industry is faced with several challenges including high rate of Customs duty and cumbersome procedure for clearance of imported materials.

He said: “We have lots of difficulties clearing consignments at the ports; there are lots of delays and difficulties. It takes hardly three to four days to clear consignments in other parts of the world, in Singapore, it takes 24 hours.

“We are faced with lots of difficulties clearing our goods. In Nigeria it takes four to six weeks to clear our consignments from the port, in addition to that, the recent strike at the port also placed lots of strain on the industry as we even have to pay demurrage for the delay even though the fault is not ours.”