Rice is a staple food widely consumed in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria.
The past year has seen a significant hike in the price of the locally produced Rice in Nigeria.
The commodity has been rising in price despite its production locally. Rice now sells for between N55,000 and N60,000 for a 50kg bag, depending on the area of purchase.
The price of one kilogramme of local rice has jumped by 73.2 percent in one year.
This information is coming from the selected food prices watch report of the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.
The report says factors responsible for this hike include the increasingly high cost of production, transportation, and other factors.
This happened despite a multi-billion naira funding support from the Central Bank of Nigeria for the nation’s rice value chain. The CBN support programme was aimed at boosting production and stopping the importation of foreign rice.
The average price of 1kg of local rise rose by 73.2 per cent from N500.80 to N867.20 between November 2022 and November 2023.
When compared with the price of 1kg of foreign imported rice, the NBS report noted an increase of 61.53 percent from N704.13 to N1,137, within the same period.
Local rice was sold at the highest in the nation’s commercial capital, Lagos at the cost of N1,122.42 despite the operation of the 32-tonne per hour Lagos Rice Mill in Imota, which produces the Eko Rice brand. The lowest price was in Kebbi State at the price of N688.
During the inauguration, the Lagos state Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu boasted that the mill would address rice importation as it had an annual paddy requirement of over 240,000 tonnes to produce 2.5 million 50kg bags of 50kg per annum.
The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Ibrahim blamed the high price on inflation and its push effect on cost of production. He said that logistics, packaging, and labor costs also contributed significantly to the rise in the price of local rice.
He said, “The cost of production has always been very high due to various factors. Transportation is a factor and it became a very serious threat to pricing after the removal of the fuel subsidy. If you are buying a bowl of milled rice, the miller has to provide its power, pay workers’ salaries, and discount the cost of his machinery. He has to do packaging alongside transportation costs. so it’s going to be costlier than imported rice that’s not edible in Thailand.
“Two, the farm gauge price is far different from the prices in the market and three markets stand out and should not be used as the parameter for pricing. The prices you get in Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt, are not good indices. There is already apathy against imported rice because people have now realized the one with better quality and those countries selling it cheap are doing so just to get rid of it.
“However, I think a 70 percent increase by the NBS is not realistic and too high. The bureau may be carrying out this information but I tell you the prices are a bit cheaper than what is reported. If you go to real markets and not artificial ones. to put things correctly, there is food inflation and it is skyrocketing but if we go by these commodities, we are likely to be lying to ourselves and the general public.”
“The past administration invested a lot in rice production and I think they should be applauded. We used to import rice to the tune of trillions but that has changed,” he added.
Countries in West Africa are projected to see increased prices of staple foods such as rice, maize, millet, and cereals in 2024.
This is according to a report titled “West Africa Regional Supply and Market Outlook” published jointly by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and World Food Program.
