The volume of rice imported through the five major dry bulk terminals that handle rice in Lagos seaports (Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports) has been dwindling in the last nine months, BusinessDay investigation has revealed.
According to the Nigerian Ports Authority’s daily shipping position, an estimated 87,750 metric tonnes (MT), were brought through the seaport between January and September this year, as against 1.78 million metric tonnes in the corresponding period of 2012.
BusinessDay learnt that the volume of rice produced domestically is slightly growing on the back of the incentives rolled out to farmers by the Federal Government to achieve the target of reducing the quantity of imported rice by 50 percent in 2015. Some state governments, like Ebonyi known for the processing of Abakiliki rice, are also investing in the cultivation and processing of rice in their states.
Specifically, statistics from Federal Ministry of Agriculture revealed that Nigerians consume about 5 million metric tonnes of rice annually, which amounts to about 100 million 50kg bags of rice. Currently, the minimum price of 50kg bag of rice is about N10,000, showing that rice consumption in the country is in excess of N1 trillion annually.
Also, about 2.9 million metric tonnes (approximately 58 million 50kg bags of rice) are expected to be the quantity for domestic production, while the remaining 2.1 million metric tonnes (about 42 million 50kg bags) of rice are imported into the country through the seaports annually at a value of N360 billion.
Joseph Mbah, an Abakiliki-based rice farmer and dealer, who sounded pessimistic about Nigeria’s ability to meet the 2015 target of reducing the volume of imported rice, said the biggest problem to domestic production was the poor volume of domestic processed rice. He confirmed that the volume of rice grown locally had been growing slightly in recent times, but was yet to impact on the processed volume.
The scenario has created a loophole for smuggling business to thrive as the larger chunk of imported rice that is currently consumed by Nigerians is smuggled through the land borders. Here, importers avert duty payment and illegally bring their goods into Nigerian market through the land borders with Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. This is happening at the time when there is a ban on importation of rice through the land border.
Reacting to this, Vicky Haastrup, the executive vice chairman of ENL Consortium, a leading dry bulk cargo terminal in Nigeria that handles imports like rice, wheat and others, said government import policy has succeeded in chasing away much of the expected cargo throughput at the nation’s seaports to the ports of neighbouring countries of Benin, Togo and Ghana.
According to her, the current import policy on rice resulted to high duties and levies paid on imported rice such that Nigerian importers now prefer to divert their cargoes to ports where it is cheaper for them to clear and smuggle the product into the country.
“Importers who patronise ports of neighboring countries are doing so because of policies of government. As at the month of August, ENL Consortium had only handled one shipment of rice throughout this year. Ordinarily, people will not go to Republic of Benin and others to take delivery of their cargoes if our ports are much cheaper and more efficient,” she said.
Tony Anakebe, a renowned clearing agent, believes there is need for the country to protect her agricultural sector through favourable fiscal policies, suggesting that the Federal Government needs to find a meeting point between importation and domestic production of rice.
Anakebe notes that pending when Nigerian farmers grow the required capacity to produce the quantity of rice that can feed at least 90 percent of the entire population, the government needs not cripple the import market and lose revenue to other countries.
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