Many Rice Mills Shut Down Production Over Paddy Scarcity
Rice millers in Kano State have attributed the hike in rice price to scarcity of paddy in the open market.
Sources in the sector have revealed that many medium and small scale companies, including some mega rice mills in the state, had been forced to shut down operations due to “paddy scarcity and the high cost of production, with many workers being sacked in the process.”
Recently, the Chairman of the Northern Chamber of Commerce Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Alhaji Dalhatu Abubakar, recently raised alarm over the scarcity of raw materials that is forcing millers to shut down operations.
Abubakar said that reports from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations,UN, indicated that Nigeria was presently the largest producer of rice in Africa, producing about 8,435,000 tonnes annually, followed by Egypt, Madagascar, Tanzania and Mali.
He explained that the implication of paddy scarcity was the force behind the current increase in the price of parboiled rice, which he noted would further increase the activities of smugglers.
The industrialist, who is also the Chairman, Al-Hamsad Integrated Rice Mill, “expressed fear that food insecurity might reach its worst level in Nigeria if the present scarcity of paddy, a major raw material for the production of finished rice, persisted in the country.”
Abubakar stressed that several millers had cut down production from 24 to 12 hours while laying off factory workers.
He, therefore, called on the federal government’s intervention in the area of mechanisation and assisting the farmers with inputs that would enable all-year-round production.
He said, “Today, hundreds of millers, both the integrated and small scale ones, are in 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.
Meanwhile, many of the millers have attributed the scarcity to insecurity issues that have been forcing many farmers to abandon their farmlands. They also link the scarcity to the Niger Republic coup, which they said had put a halt to importation of paddy from countries like Burkina Faso.
Daily Trust/Shakirat Sadiq
