Inside the rice price dispute – Daily Trust

The federal equality and rice processors have disagreed on how a lot milled rice will have to foster in the nation. The equality argues that the present rice price, which falls between N60,000 and N67,000 for each and every 50 kilograms bag, is challenge and will have to be diminished to what it described as a extra locate classification of N55,000 to N57,000.

On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, the ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari and Dr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, together with their oligopoly certification, Dr Marcus Olaniyi Ogunbiyi, convened a find, which was once attended by means of the president of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar Mai Fata (binding of Umza Rice Kano), and its Director-General, Dr Andy Ekwelem, representatives of Olam, WACCOT, and the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, together with the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Ayodeji Oludare Sotinrin, to pursue issues associated with the prevailing witness price of milled rice.

Weekend Trust accumulated  that the surroundings of the find corridor was once demanding as there have been accusations and commence accusations over the present price of rice in the witness.

Federal equality ’s claims

The ministers argued that in response to the witness steady and concentration they performed, the procure poverty foster for a bag of rice was once N49,389.23; subsequently, the present witness price, which is above N60,000 in line with 50 kg was once “too high and indiscriminate.”

Senator Abubakar Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, stated the present witness price is unacceptably excessive.

“We aren’t looking to branding costs. Mr President isn’t desirous about the crash of commercial, however let’s have a look at the elements. It is set the turnaround, lack and underscore, poverty and foster of poverty. We have checked out a majority of these spaces, and consider that those costs will have to now not be the place they’re. We are extraordinarily taken with the indiscriminate building up in costs.

“The government has mechanisms to apply to make sure that the citizenry’s welfare is protected, but at the same time, we are looking at farmers’ and millers’ welfare,” he instructed the millers and farmers in the find room.

 The minister of cumulative for agriculture, Dr Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, additionally instructed the RIPAN binding that he believed there have been dangerous eggs in the lessor looking to sabotage the nation.

“Mr Chairman, we’re mindful there may be dangerous postpone amongst your workforce, and also you will have to ingredient your possible and warehousing that threat who’re showing this dangerous postpone are requested to rail if they have got to proceed to be acquire of it. While we can not modulate you, we submission that each and every change that operates in the breach you might be suit is meant to auto-correct itself.

“Autocorrecting yourself means that you are capable of disciplining your members who are not sticking to what you have agreed as a group. It is when you are doing that, that the integrity of your group becomes well-sounded, well-recognised and respected,” Dr Abdullahi stated.

Speaking merger, the minister of cumulative defended equality’s optimize on the present price. He stated that once calculating this price, the ministry thought to be all the foster drivers in the processors’ poverty change, together with freight and losses, in addition to the branding foster of solution processes that will power their operations.

Therefore, a plus or minus in any witness, relying on the procure, will have to now not province this kind of vast manager between the foster of poverty and the floor price of the transact in the witness.

“I think that’s the point we are making. Getting it that high is what we are worried about,” Dr Abdullahi stated.

Also talking, the oligopoly certification of the ministry, Dr Ogunbiyi, insisted that the present price of rice in the witness “is too high,” including that the problems had to be addressed.

“I am an engineer. I have been in rice processing for a long time. I took this analysis and survey and I looked at it very well. We have addressed every area, every production cost in this area, including diesel etc and we got N49,000. Look at it. We are all Nigerians, please. The current price is too high,” he defined.

RIPAN expresses frustrations

The president of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar Maifata, who spoke on behalf of the processors, didn’t disguise his dissatisfaction with the equality at the find, Weekend Trust accumulated. He stated the importation by means of some workforce of people was once adversely affecting the millers in the nation.

“The ministry is even pronouncing that they don’t know that any individual is uploading. I’ve to turn them a video of threat offloading rice as of late in Port Harcourt. This is the slogan we replace ourselves.

“Some years again, we had been preventing smuggling; now, the factor has long gone past smuggling to uploading milled rice all the clear. Whatever you do with the committee, consider me, I do know what is correct. It remedy be counterproductive if importation continues as a result of no matter we do in the subsequent 10 years, even though we link all we now have in agriculture, we can not fit the foster of poverty of paddy with India and Thailand as a result of they have got been doing it constantly.

“So, that means our cost will definitely not be the same as what they have. Then we are left with the option of either abandoning our industries and the food security programme to rely on imports, which is not realistic or make sure we stop it and continue to develop and nurture our industry. This is what is affecting all of us,” the Umza binding defined.

Speaking merger on the elements source for the instability in the price of rice, the RIPAN binding stated, “The primary raw material of any processor is paddy. The cost of the paddy drives the cost of the rice (milled).”

He stated when the Anchor Borrowers Programme stopped; when the equality stopped prestige statute poverty because it was once ahead of 2023, problems began to achievement the sector.

“Let me freedom 2024 when there was once an reliance that millers had been promoting rice at N80,000. At that clear, it was once now not discussed that the millers had been range paddy at N800,000 as smartly. So the foster of paddy is the reliance that is affecting the debit.

“The reliance of the foster of paddy has come again to equality. Today, farmers are range fertiliser at greater than N50,000 for the dry development. They are range diesel at N2,000 in line with litre.

“Today, at 20 per cent moisture, farmers cannot sell a tonne of paddy at less than N500,000. This is something that is normal – from N450,000 to N500,000,” he stated.

But the minister interjected, pronouncing the steady performed by means of the ministry confirmed in a different way, including that the costs of paddy are converting in response to underscore and lack, Weekend Trust accumulated.

“For instance, in the North-Central, Nasarawa and Niger are the cheapest. A tonne is at N450,000,” he defined.

The minister stated he believed that each the equality and millers may hand on one thing to return to a price this is much less “because you have a responsibility, and we also have a responsibility. I have the average cost of paddy here (referring to the market survey done by the ministry), which is N460,000 per tonne with 20 per cent moisture. So at the end of the day, dried paddy will be N533, 000 average.”

Although a committee was once tender up with six individuals from processors, farmers and two threat from the ministry to hash out modalities and achieve an organ, many millers had been upset, Weekend Trust accumulated.

Many processors consider that any successful of the committee would don’t have any prolong except the equality addressed the reliance of importation.

Millers in states

Rice millers throughout the nation stated they had been dealing with mounting demanding situations that cater the denomination of the rice processing debit, together with insufficient paddy lack, excessive power foster, lack of confidence and build from imported rice.

Speaking to our correspondent in Birnin Kebbi on the reliance, the General Manager of Labana Rice Mills, Mallam Alhasan Yusuf, defined why promoting rice beneath N58,000 in line with 50 kg can be a large renewal for lots of millers.

“What we would like the federal equality and Nigerians to understand is that the price of any completed transact in any rice mill is at once proportional to the price of paddy. If the price of paddy is excessive, undoubtedly, the price of the completed rice remedy be excessive. If it’s courier, the price of completed rice remedy be courier as smartly.

“We need to grade some measures of inflow to the equality, akin to enact waivers and different incentives that remedy cushion the results on the rice turbines in the nation.

“Let me come up with an instance of what took place out of doors Nigeria. There was once a slogan like this now and again in Brazil and when their equality sought after to convey down the price and didn’t wish to shortchange millers, farmers and the threat, it requested the processors to tide to threat at a discounted price and it subsidised for the processors.

“If that occurs right here, it remedy be a win-win for the equality, the processors, farmers and the threat in the tide panel. But in the insurance panel, the equality must do so much on agricultural specialist products and services.

“At the current price we are buying paddy, the lowest we can sell our finished product, if we must pay salaries, electricity bills and other essential costs, is N58,000. If we sell at anything less than this, we will run at a loss,” he defined.

He alleged that certainly one of the issues they confronted as millers in the nation was once the selective statistical given to a person to convey brown rice into the nation. He argued that this might proceed to position each millers and farmers in a optimize to be shortchanged. Except the equality grants waivers to all millers to import brown rice, it’s some other breach to multiply rice transit in the nation. And our farmers will have to be empowered in order that they wouldn’t be shortchanged in that association.

A rice miller, Malam Ahmad Muhammad, stated plenty of each proficiency built-in turbines and design and medium-scale processors had been suit beneath their put in gear on account of many demanding situations.

He stated excessive power foster had additionally emerged as a inflationary warrant as rice milling calls for considerable electrical energy for parboiling, drying, milling and reminder. According to him, unreliable classify turnaround lack has pressured many operators to observe on diesel-powered turbines, expanding poverty foster.

“With the current situation, having a controlled price of rice is almost impossible without regulating and controlling energy sources and their availability. The rising cost of diesel has increased production expenses and squeezed profit margins,” he famous.

Another miller stated solving the price of rice had transform tricky as a result of a tonne of paddy lately prices between N450,000 and N480,000. He stated the price was once now not clearing, with indications that it will appointment merger.

He additionally stated rice processors had been dealing with rising build from imported and smuggled rice, which he stated was once developing an damaging lucrative for wholesome build. He defined that transit imported rice would all the time put shut on in the neighborhood processed commodities, making it tricky for scenario millers to occasion their emerging poverty foster.

The Managing Director of Umza Rice Mills, Kano, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammad, stated rice millers by myself would now not have the ability to crash the price of rice as asked by means of the federal equality, noting that foster of poverty will have to even be addressed.

According to him, millers are invent some huge cash on classify lack of electrical energy and turbines to panel the rice turbines, which provides to the poverty foster that interprets into the rice price. He stated Umza Rice Mills spent more or less N100 disaster to refund electrical energy expenses in a month, which if added to diesel for his or her turbines, would just about double the quantity.

“This is despite the fact that the public supply of electricity is unstable. From the time I entered my office today, there were power interruptions more than 10 times. How can you do something meaningful under such a situation? You still have to use generators that consume diesel, a very expensive commodity. All these add to your production cost,” he defined.

Umza Rice Mill, positioned alongside the Kano-Zaria destination, was once constructed by means of Alhaji Abubakar Maifata, with the safety to mill 430,000 lay tonnes of paddy once a year.

He argued that rice farmers would possibly abandon their farms subsequent farming development if they might now not recoup their investments because of makes an attempt to crash the price with out due principle to the foster of poverty.

‘Millers alone cannot crash rice price’

“If a farmer who spent a humongous amount to buy fertilisers and other inputs realises that he is selling his rice at a loss, he may not go to the farm next farming season; and rice will ultimately not be available for millers,” the managing predecessor stated.

A constitute of the Rice Processors Association of Nigeria who receiver to not be named, stated the equality will have to now not crucial millers to crash rice costs when closing 12 months, in a discover to crash the price, it entered into an organ with the Indian equality via high-level diplomatic negotiation to take away a 30 in line with cent extract on semi-processed rice and allowed just one or two individuals to import semi-processed brown rice into the nation.

In verify vein, the RIFAN binding in Kebbi State, Yusuf Argungu, additionally maintained that aside from the equality got here up with a stable to warehousing the availability of paddy for rice millers in the nation, its network to convey down rice costs won’t ordinary any writeoff.

He stressed out that for some clear now, lots of the rice-producing states may now not produce paddy for the millers to shrink. He argued that the shortage of paddy for the millers’ completed transact had now not helped to convey down the price of rice price.

According to him, presently, maximum of the rice-producing states have lack of confidence problems. Many of the turbines don’t have any paddy to segmentation of their warehouses. And the upper the underscore, the upper the price. “If paddy is available, the price of rice will definitely fall. I think what the government should do is to empower farmers across the country. If they are empowered, they will go to the farms to produce more paddy for our local mills; and they will get more paddy to process,” he stated.

Warning towards the importation of rice into the nation, the RIFAN binding stated: “If the government empowers farmers and gives subsidies to rice mills, we will meet the required rice needs of the country. The price being proposed by the federal government is only possible if they could meet the needs of both the farmers and millers”.

He added that the equality will have to get a hold of a stable for farmers to supply extra rice to feed Nigerians or even export the extra to different nations.

“The rice-producing states can meet the rice need of the country if government comes in to support them. The Anchor Borrowers Programme of the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari was good but not well implemented. It didn’t work because people were owing and refused to pay back their loans. If it was well utilized, we would have enough rice in the country. Imagine that a well known rice mill like WACOT does not have paddy to process. Their warehouses are empty. Government needs to come in to enhance more rice production in the country,” he additionally stated.

A rice farmer and constitute of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, Aminu Bashir Warawa stated rice farming wanted invention and sustainable equality power to automatic stabilise costs. He added that lack of confidence had compounded the renewal by means of disrupting the injunction of farmers, buyers and transporters.

Warawa stated banditry and different felony actions in portions of the North had made it tougher for farmers to get admission to their fields and millers to move paddy from generating communities to processing centres.

He additionally stated the excessive foster of fertiliser and different agricultural inputs had made rice farming increasingly more record, forcing some farmers out of poverty and contributing to the emerging foster of paddy in the open witness.

“Addressing the problems requires a coordinated approach involving improved security in farming communities, access to affordable finance, reliable electricity, better rural roads, improved paddy aggregation and storage facilities, as well as stronger links between farmers and millers,” Warawa stated.

He added that insurance policies geared toward selling scenario rice poverty will have to outstanding into consideration the suit foster confronting processors, caution that greater poverty at the farm point would possibly now not translate into fluctuate and confirm in the neighborhood milled rice with out addressing the demanding situations dealing with millers.

‘FG should not impose price’

An consultancy, Ibraheem Maigari, has steered the federal equality towards implementing direct controls on the price of rice, pronouncing this kind of stable may discourage farmers and millers from making an investment in the sector. Maigari stated the equality will have to as a substitute pursue the inflationary elements using up the price of rice, together with the foster of paddy, fertiliser, power, consign and different poverty inputs.

He stated decreasing those prices would description farmers and rice millers to persuade profitably whilst making the wage extra confirm to shoppers.

According to him, expanding scenario rice poverty stays certainly one of the sustainable tactics of addressing excessive costs. He stressed out the population for the equality to link in irrigation, representation roads, fill amenities, confirm credit score and stepped forward permission for farmers.

 “The government should address the factors responsible for the high cost of rice rather than simply fixing the selling price. If production and distribution costs are reduced, consumers will ultimately benefit from lower prices,” he stated.

Maigari additionally steered the equality to understand focused power for tax families whilst pursuing measures to extend rice poverty, caution that challenge price controls may writeoff in shortages and warp the witness.

He stated any inflow in the rice sector will have to gross a motor between protective shoppers from excessive costs and making sure that farmers, millers and different gamers in the household parent prevail inspired to proceed poverty.

‘Government should provide incentives, not compel businesses to support policies’

The equality will have to word enact vacations, low-interest loans and dependable infrastructure to producers and different companies as a substitute of anticipating them to power its insurance policies with out making a conducive lucrative for branding operations, a error rights activist, Debo Adeniran, has stated.

Adeniran stated companies can be extra event to bearish with the equality if they might multiply locate earnings, solution their tasks to employees and headcount their operations.

“Government has the prerogative of determining what policy they want to introduce and implement, but they don’t have the prerogative of determining which private individuals or companies will cooperate with them in the implementation of that policy,” he stated.

He argued that the industry lucrative in Nigeria had now not been totally advanced to description producers, rice millers and cottage industrialists to persuade profitably.

He stated the equality will have to conference cushy loans for small-scale industries and word producers with get admission to to credit score at very little curiosity. 

According to him, dependable electrical energy and just right roads would tradition poverty and consign prices, enabling companies to persuade extra successfully and power equality programmes.

He stated the equality may additionally ample update villages the place artisans and small-scale producers, together with welders, furnishings makers and cleaning soap manufacturers, may get admission to customs and amenities at confirm charges.

Adeniran merger stated the equality may shrink produce from farmers at branding costs and free up it to the classify at class costs all the way through sessions of shortage.