Perspectives on food safety across traditional market supply chains in Nigeria

Abstract

Food supply chains play a key role in ensuring food safety, as actions anywhere along the chain can impact the safety of food when it arrives at markets and in homes. However, pre-retail food supply chains are often understudied and receive limited policy attention; most work on food safety focuses on the retail or consumer level. This study helps fill these gaps by examining perceptions and actions related to food safety among the supply-chain actors who provide food to traditional markets in Birnin Kebbi, a mid-sized secondary city in northern Nigeria. Data were collected through extended in-depth interviews with producers, processors, transporters, storage providers, and wholesalers of six food commodities (including legumes, grains, vegetables, and animal-source foods). With some diversity depending on the commodity, the study found supply chain actors share similar motivations and challenges. All supply chains were dominated by men, and children were found to play a non-negligible role in supporting supply chain activities (e.g., loading vehicles). Interviewees generally had a limited conception of food safety hazards and little worry about the food they sold/handled being unsafe and were confident that they could detect food safety/quality issues through simple (mostly visual) signs. Interviewees generally reported that their clients had little concern about food safety or interest in discussing it. Worries related to price fluctuations and limited perception of their responsibility emerged as barriers to supply chain actors’ adopting food safety practices. These barriers seemed highest for transport providers, who stood out as being less well organized into associations; less vested in and knowledgeable about particular commodities; and feeling particularly little responsibility for food quality/safety. The importance of repeat relationships of trust to maintain their livelihoods, strong social norms, and rapid uptake of an emerging safe-storage technology were all identified as factors potentially facilitating improved food safety. The results are discussed in the context of the literature to consider potential approaches and inroads for improving food safety along the supply chain in Nigeria, with potential lessons for LMICs more broadly.