Nigerians to Pay More for Rice, Due To Shortage of Paddy Rice To Rice Mills
Nigerians are to pay more for rice, due to an acute shortage of paddy rice to rice mills in the country. The shortage has forced several rice mills to shut down.
Chairman of the Northern Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dalhatu Abubakar, told newsmen in Kaduna that millers are now finding it difficult to source paddy to run their plants.
He said the price of the available paddy has gone up to N400,000 from N300,000 per ton in June.
Abubakar said millers are now cutting their production level from 24 hours to 12 hours, as well as laying out workers.
Abubakar, who is also the Chairman, Al-Hamsad Integrated Rice Mill, lamented the resultant implication of the paddy scarcity would, among other things, include an increase in the price of rice and an increase in the activities of smugglers.
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He stressed that several millers had reduced production from 24 to 12 hours while laying off factory workers. He called for government intervention in mechanization and assisting the farmers with needed input to enable all-year-round production.
“Today, hundreds of millers, both the integrated and small scale, are in a serious dilemma and finding it extremely difficult to break even. It is difficult to sustain production now because of the scarcity of paddy. As I speak, I know many millers that have completely closed their factories.
“And those that are yet to close because they still have limited paddy in their reserve cannot operate 24 hours. Like me, I have reduced my production to 12 hours because I don’t have paddy. By implication, several workers will be rendered jobless.
“Wherever you see paddy now, you buy it at an exorbitant price, and you will still be compelled to face the high cost of fuel, pay tax, electricity bill. How many factories would survive this hard economy? The only hard way now is the cost of finished rice which Nigerians will soon face,” Abubakar noted.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Nigeria is presently the largest producer of rice in Africa, producing about 8,435,000 tonnes annually, followed by Egypt, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mali.
