The Nation Newspaper

Tag: rice

  • How to stop Nigeria’s N1b rice imports

    How to stop Nigeria’s N1b rice imports

    The Federal Government has been urged to improve on local rice to provide better yield if the country is to stop its importation and achieve self-sufficiency and food security in 2015.

    Speaking on Analysis of the policy options for expanding output and improving performance of the rice milling sector in Nigeria preliminary findings, in Abuja, a Research Fellow at the Development Strategy & Governance Division, United States-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Michael Johnson, said the quality of locally milled rice needs to be improved to enhance competitiveness with imported products.

    To increase competitiveness with imported brand, Johnson urged the government to improve processing and handling of local species, arguing that given the current milling and operating costs, the sector cannot compete without the government placing imported rice on tariffs.

    Industrial rice processors, he said, can only mill 40 per cent of the local paddy rice due to lack of good quality paddy rice. He also said large scale mills have greater potential to improve the competitiveness of local rice with imports.

    He said Nigeria’s fertile land and rich agro-climatic conditions, provide enormous potential to feed its population, generate huge potentials for jobs and income for its people.

    He noted however, that the country’s local rice production still accounts for less than 50 per cent of its total consumption and the demand gap has been filled by polished/milled rice imported mostly from India, Thailand and Brazil.

    He said the government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenga (ATA) has listed rice as one of the five commodities to attract special focus for increased production.

    He was of the opinion the nation’s rice self-sufficiency policies are very important but the policies should be workable and sustainable by making the nation’s rice globally competitive.

  • Rice: From Thailand, Malaysia with pains

    Rice: From Thailand, Malaysia with pains

    Considered as Nigeria’s staple, rice is everyone’s delight. Millions of Nigerians cannot go a day without consuming the commodity. It is easily affordable and available to everyone. Children savour it as much as adults revel eating it.

    At Daleko, the biggest rice market in Mushin, Lagos, the commodity arrives nearly every moment in trucks and lorries. The closeness of the market to Apapa seaport attenuates its relevance. There are as much buyers as sellers. Loaders and carriers also swell the expansive market.

    Most of the rice arrives from Thailand, Malaysia and even Brazil. Several more however arrive from Benin Republic through bushes and illegal routes, no thanks to smugglers. The active connivance of Customs officials ensure this illegal transaction continues to thrive.

    Chidi Samuel, a seller at the market, confessed that many unethical practices take place around the commodity. “Many of these bags are repackaged. Many are mixed with water to ensure swelling and different variants of rice are added together,” he stated. All of these, according to him, are to maximise profits at all costs.

    Investigations also revealed certain chemicals are added to the commodity for preservation. Nigerians consume all of these because local rice production is almost zero.

    The Director of Consult, YABATECH, Mr. Okoro Emeka, said rice is a safe commodity for consumption if processed and consumed within the first six months of importation. The ceaseless importation of the product however ensures there are always more than that can meet consumption demands in supply.

    Emeka said the importation of the commodity however can expose them to weather attacks such as rain, water and moisture. The food technologist pointed out such attacks could breed mould, which causes mycotoxin. This, according to him, is a poisonous substance, which can give rise to cancer.

    There is also the possibility of the rice losing taste, flavour as well as colour if exposed to the attacks. Though this does not have health hazards, it deprives rice consumers the essential nutritional value of the commodity.

  • ‘N9.7b rice smuggled into Nigeria monthly’

    ‘N9.7b rice smuggled into Nigeria monthly’

    ABOUT 1.6 million bags of rice worth N9.7 bil-lion are smug-gled into the country monthly from Benin Republic, a group, Trans-Border Traders Association of Nigeria (TBTA), has said.

    It appealed to the Federal Government to lift the ban on the importation of the commodity through land borders.

    The National Co-ordinator of the association, Alhaji Mikky Okunola, said the ban has impacted negatively on investors and the government’s initiatives to encourage local rice production.

    In 2011, the Federal Government, in its determination to block revenue loopholes, banned the importation of rice through land borders.

    Okunola said if rice was allowed through the seaports only, it waould be available at reasonable prices. And no one would evade duties and levies.

    He said genuine importers were required to pay duties and levies, which those engaged in smuggling evade. According to him, this makes smugglers to sell at market price and make excessive profit, or slightly below the market price to undercut honest importers.

    He said the policy was aiding rice smuggling, urging the Federal Government to reverse it.

    Okunola, however, praised the Seme Border Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) on its efforts to curtail smuggling. He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to lift the ban on rice importation through land borders to reduce smuggling.

    He said the raids carried out by Customs at Seme were in order, stating that it was the duty of the Customs to sanitise operations within its legitimate environment.

     

  • Govt spends N88b on rice, sugar import

    THE Federl Government spent N88.15 billion on rice and raw cane sugar importation between October and December last year, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said. In its fourth quarter 2012 trade statistics.

    Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, said N56.91 billion was spent on importation of semi-milled or wholly-milled rice in packaging of more than five kilogrammes, or in bulk; while raw cane sugar in solid form took N31.24billion.

    It put the total merchandise trade for the fourth quarter of 2012 at N7.185 trillion, representing an increase of N6.4 billion or 0.1 per cent over what was recorded in the third quarter of last year.

    “The total value of Nigeria’s external merchandise trade for the fourth quarter of 2012 stood at N7.185trillion, showing a slight increase of N6.4billion or 0.1 per cent over the previous quarter.

    “At the end of 2012, Nigeria’s external trade was N28.071trillion. This was 4.3 per cent lower than the corresponding figure of N29.333trillion recorded in 2011.”

    The development, the NBS said, was due to a sharp decrease of 43.1 per cent in the value of imports from N9.89trillion in 2011 to N5.62trillion in 2012.

    In spite of the decrease in the value of imports, experts have lamented that N88billion was still spent on the importation of rice and sugar in the last quarter of the year.

    This, according to them, is a stark reflection of the country’s dependence on food imports.

    The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, said the country had become a dumping ground for imported food, adding that Nigerians were spending N2trillion yearly on food importation.

    He had said: “It is a shameful thing that Nigeria has become a net importer of food.

    Nigeria has become a dumping ground for cheap food, and it is killing our people and the economy.

    “About N1billion is spent every day to import rice. We also spend N240billion to import sugar, and N1.2trillion annually on fish. With this, we are creating market for others.”

    In view of this, the Federal Government had made known its intention to ban the importation of rice in order to promote the consumption of locally produced rice by 2015.

    The minister said the Federal Government had evolved measures to ensure the nation’s food security would not be at risk.

    Adesina said the country would by 2015 grow sufficient rice for local consumption.

    According to him, part of the transformation plan of the Federal Government was to focus on the whole value chain in agriculture, adding that the government would also grow the seed sector in the country.

     

  • Over 8,000 bags of rice smuggled into Nigeria daily, survey shows

    No fewer than 8,000 bags of rice worth over N56 million are smuggled into the country daily, it was learnt, over the weekend. They are smuggled through Ere River in Ado–Odo/Ota in Ogun State.

    The river, which links the country with Cotonou to Owode-Apa and Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, also links Gbaji and Badagry Lagoon up to the Atlantic Ocean.

    When The Nation visited the area last week, locally made boats carrying more than 1,000 bags of rice each, were being used to ferry the commodity into the country.

    Ere River is a rice smuggling point, yet to be discovered by Customs and other security officials posted to the area.

    The boats were seen offloading rice to vehicles that would carry them to places, such as Agbara, Sango-Ota, Ifo and Alaba-Rago Market, Iyana-Ipaja.

    The smugglers have been using the river for their illicit business for years.

    A motorcyclist, who took The Nation’s reporter to the river, alleged that some Customs officials are aware of the smugglers’ activities, but are handicapped because of the calibre of the people involved.

    “The reason I agreed to take you there is to tell you that there is nothing government can do to stop smuggling unless those in power provide employment for the youth.

    “I graduated from the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education more than six years ago but I have not been able to secure employment since I finished from the school. I make my money through the number of rice I convey to the market per day.

    “I am not the only youth involved; we are many. We use our motorcycles to survey where the Customs are staying at a particular time before we ask our vehicles to bring the rice to the road.

    “If you counted the number of people we met at that place, you will notice that they are no fewer than 80 and they are more than that. A majority of them are ex-security officers and the few serving ones have access to arms and ammunition and that was why I told you that it would be dangerous for you to use your camera.

    “The people you saw there are very deadly and they have wasted so many people that have threatened their business,” he said.

    A Customs officer from the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of Zone A at Agbara-Lusada road, said the Customs mounted surveillance in the areas because it suspects the smugglers have a hide-out there.

    Several bags of rice, he said, have been intercepted by hire teams on the axis.

    “Although, I don’t know where the river you mentioned is located, but we cannot deny that smuggling is going on around this place and that is why many of our officers have been posted to curtail the unpatriotic activities of the smugglers.

    “My experience since I was posted to this area is that there is the need for the Federal Executive Council and the Minister of Finance to address the issue of high port charges, which created incentive for tariff avoidance and smuggling, and support the good efforts of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi.

    “Those of us posted to curb the nefarious activities of smugglers in the border areas are not finding it easy.

    “It is a difficult task because a majority of those involved are youths from the area and they know the area very well. Don’t forget that we, security officials, are strangers and we are not expected to detect all the routes that smugglers use in a few days. So, if you have detected a new route, it is your duty as a journalist to inform us before telling the public,” the officer said.

    The smugglers’ activities, was also learnt, are crippling the business of those importing the commodity through the ports.

    Last year, the country was said to have lost N16.3 billion to smuggling.

    A Customs officer at a check point mounted by the Customs before the Agbara Bridge popularly called death trap (Koto Orun) told The Nation that the number of youths now into smuggling has grown because of unemployment.

    Smuggled goods include second hand vehicles, textile materials, used cloths, bags, shoes, tyres, rice, frozen chicken, frozen turkey, vegetable oil, soap, furniture sweets, cigarettes, apples, pineapple and palm oil.

     

  • Kwara’s N70b rice project starts in December

     Kwara State’s N70 billion rice cultivation and processing project is to be unveiled in December, its foreign partner has said.

    The partner, Valsolar S.L. 2006 of Spain, said it has secured funds for the project that has an initial life span of 4 years.
    Reacting to the news, Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed welcomed the development as the project is key to his administration’s efforts to provide food for the people, jobs for the youths and inputs for agro-allied industries, while at the same time growing the state’s economy through agriculture.

    “ I am particularly pleased that this project will be generating 12,000 jobs across the value chain as well as substantially growing the state’s economy. Our farmers will also benefit from the technology transfer component of the project. No doubt, this huge project is one of several envisaged under the Kwara State Agricultural Modernization Plan (KAMP) the implementation of which is soon to commence”, he said.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Investment, Policy and Strategy,  Abayomi Ogunsola, said under the terms of the joint venture Memorandum of Agreement  the company is to invest N70billion in the project over the next four years, while the state will provide 20,000 hectares of land as well as infrastructural support for the project which will operate under a registered joint venture company, Valsolar-Kwara Limited.  According to Ogunsola, each annual module of the project will  see the company cultivate 5000 hectares of land and produce 40000 tons of rice for local and international consumption.

    Following satellite and laboratory soil analyses earlier in the year, Valsolar-Kwara has decided to site the projects in communities along the River Niger in Kwara North, namely Tsonga, Pategi, Bacita and Lafiagi, he said.