Ministry of Agriculture
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the scarcity of local rice in Nigerian markets should be tied to disconnect between integrated rice millers and the supply chain.
Deputy Director, Rice Value Chain in the ministry, Fatimah Aliyu, stated this in Abuja.
Aliyu spoke at the 2nd National Congress, Policy Dialogue and Inauguration of the Board of Trustees of Rice Assured Advocacy Forum (RAAF), facilitated by John A. Kufuor Foundation (JAKF).
She said though there was huge market for the local rice, integrated millers were reluctant to push out their products for fear of price competition with imported rice.
Aliyu was responding to complaints by representatives of some rice millers who claimed that most Nigerians preferred imported rice to local rice because of its cheap price.
“There is market for Nigerian rice. There are people willing to pay the high price for it because of its high nutritional value, but they cannot get it to buy.
“There is that market disconnect that has to be looked into,” Aliyu said.
She urged stakeholders in the rice value chain under the RAAF’s platform to brainstorm on the issue and come out with suggestions on how to tackle the problem.
“We are open to all those suggestions because it is part of policy advocacy.
“Once you, the stakeholders, give us those suggestions, government is going to look at them because the situation is also a problem to government.
“Integrated millers have invested so much in the business, and even government has also invested so much in it. So, it is of importance that integrated millers succeed,” she said.
However, the millers blamed the high price of local rice on production cost, resulting from poor power supply, high transport fare and smuggling of foreign rice.