Importers Crash Rice Prices Again as Local Operators Lament Selective Waivers

• Rice farmers in Nigeria are lamenting the impact of imported and smuggled rice in Nigeria, especially its effect on farmers
• The Competitive Africa Rice Forum, Nigeria chapter, alerted the Nigerian government to the effect of selective waivers on rice imports
• The Forum’s Bot Chairman, Peter Dama, said Nigeria’s rice industry is on the verge of collapse as imported rice prices have crashed

Legit.ng’s Pascal Oparada has reported on tech, energy, stocks, investment and the economy for over a decade.

Rice farmers under the aegis of the Competitive Africa Rice Forum, Nigeria chapter, have alerted the Nigerian government to the dangers of selective import duty waivers, rice smuggling and market distortions.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees of the forum in Nigeria, Peter Dama, said that Nigeria’s rice sector, with over 13 million metric tonnes of milling capacity, is underutilised due to imported and smuggled rice.

Rice farmers warn of the sector’s collapse

He warned that despite more than 20 years of public-private investment, the sector is on the verge of shutting down.

Dama lamented that local mills are closing shops due to competition from subsidised imports and smuggled rice.

Specifically, Dama pointed to the 180-day import duty waiver given by the Nigerian government last year to import husked brown rice and other food items.

Dama said the policy severely impacted local producers, despite the relative decline in rice prices nationwide.

FG policy collapses rice production

He said the policy collapsed the demand for paddy rice in Nigeria, leaving farmers with unsold products.

Dama said that due to this, several millers reduced or stopped operations and thousands of jobs were lost across rice-producing states, including Kebbi, Kano, Ebonyi, Plateau, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Ekiti, Benue, Akwa Ibom, and Adamawa.

He revealed that the youth and women-led groups were the most affected, as the gains of several years were reversed overnight.

The Forum’s BoT boss warned that these drawbacks discourage future investments in the sector and reduce farmers’ interest in rice production.

According to Dama, the smuggling of substandard rice through the borders undermines farmers.

He said smuggling continues to affect the efforts of legitimate producers, stressing that the trend could cause socio-economic implications.

Farmers ask for FG’s intervention

He asked the Nigerian government to promptly intervene to save the rice industry and protect the livelihoods of about five million Nigerians who depend on the rice value chain.

Dama asked the government to end selective import waivers, ensure transparency in trade incentives, reaffirm the product as a protected crop, boost the Nigeria Customs capacity to check smuggling, and deploy rapid-response enforcement teams at the nation’s borders.

Importers crash rice prices

The New Telegraph reported that Dama said that protecting the rice sector is not an economic priority alone, but an essential step to ensuring national resilience and food security.

A previous report by Legit.ng disclosed that importers crashed the commodity’s prices by as much as N25,000 per 50k bag as India lifted the embargo on exports.

The world’s largest rice producer had restricted exports to protect local producers and improve sales locally.

However, due to the change in the country’s export policy, Thailand, another large producer, increased its exports to West African countries, including Togo and the Benin Republic, impacting supplies in Nigeria.

Dangote partners to crash rice prices

Legit.ng earlier reported that Nigeria’s efforts to reduce food prices has received another major boost as Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, unveiled a multi-billion naira rice production initiative in Niger state.

This is coming days after fellow billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu vowed to continue crashing rice prices across the country.

Speaking at the opening of the 2025 Niger National Trade Fair in Minna, Fatima Abdurrahman, senior special adviser to the president of Dangote Group, said the conglomerate is developing a 32-metric-tonnes-per-hour rice mill on a 30-hectare site in Wushishi.

Source: Legit.ng