By Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh has said that federal government’s stringent policy on importation of rice has affected production of the grains in Thailand which is a big exporter of the grains to Nigeria.
Ogbeh said that Nigeria’s policy on rice has led to closure of some factories in Thailand, adding that seven factories involved in rice production in that country has closed shops.
He recalled that while Nigeria imported 580,000 tonnes of rice from both Thailand and India as at 2014, this has dropped by about 50 percent to 280,000 last year.
Ogbeh who in Abuja at a Town Hall meeting said that this has saved Nigeria the foreign exchange used in importing the grains.
He maintained that Nigeria has no reason to import everything, claiming that Thai rice has a lower grade to that of Nigeria because of the long time it is stored before consumption.
He said, “We have no reason to be importing everything. The Thai rice is of low-grade because it is stored in silos for many years before it is exported. The Thais don’t eat parboiled rice; they eat white rice.”
Ogbeh disclosed that authorities of government were alert over report about a plan to bring in eight shiploads of low quality rice to Benin Republic which will be smuggled into Nigeria.
He explained that imported rice was cheaper than local rice because of the subsidies which farmers enjoy in cultivation in Vietnam, India and Thailand to earn foreign exchange.
He said that Nigerian farmers sell higher because they have to borrow money from banks at very high interest rate.