The Chairman, Presidential Taskforce on Rice and Wheat Production, Gov. Abubakar Bagudu, has warned Nigerians against consumption of imported rice.
Read also: Nigeria spends $22bn on food importation yearly – Agric. Minister
The Kebbi State governor gave this warning on Sunday in Birnin-Kebbi in an interview he granted newsmen.
The chairman, who expressed his displeasure at the continuous importation of rice into the country, and the patronage of such rice by citizens, said imported rice usually contained preservatives, which are poisonous.
He disclosed that there were three major importers of rice into the country who specialised in importing very cheap, auctioned rice into the country.
Explaining reasons price of local rice is not competitive, the governor said, “Countries, particularly Thailand, India, China and Vietnam, buy a lot of paddy from their farmers and keep in storage sometimes, as long as nine years so that by so doing, they are supporting their farmers.
“A country like Thailand, for example, may have eight million tonnes of rice in storage; so occasionally, they will auction the ones that are almost going bad that is, the one that is not fit for human consumption.
“They sell the paddy as low as 20 per cent less than the international market price.
“Those that import rice into Nigeria will go and buy the paddy and clean them up.
“Because they do not buy rice at the international price, our local farmers who are offering rice for $500 will not be competitive.
“If that importer is to buy fresh rice, he cannot bring it into Nigeria below $700 per tonne.
“This is the biggest obstacle to our rice efforts because consumers say local rice is expensive; it is not expensive because we are not comparing it with equivalent rice elsewhere.”
The governor said that out of the 600 million tonnes of rice produced in the world, Nigeria produced about six million tonnes which represented one per cent of the production.”
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