The Agriculture Trans
formation Agenda (ATA) strategy to have private sector players at the driver’s seat while government plays the facilitator role has further yielded results as Flour Mills Nigeria Plc (FMN), has stated that it would soon begin optimum production of locally grown rice in the country.
Making the disclosure recently, the Group Managing Director of Flour Mills Plc, Paul Gbededo during the, “Facts Behind the Figures,” presentation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos, said the company aims to achieve the feat through aggregation by involving local farmers and others in the supply chain.
“Nigeria consumes about 4 million metric tones of rice and we need about I million acres of land to achieve that.
“We want to start aggregating by involving others in the supply chain, so very soon, you will start seeing our rice brand” he said.
Explaining the involvement of FMN in the rice business, he further stated that the company has been involved in the importation of parboiled rice into the country since 2009 as well as the construction of a rice mill in 2010 with the capacity to process brown rice or semi-processed rice into perboil rice.
On the challenges that exist in the industry, he however, noted that tariff on importation of rice has affected its production as imported rice is cheaper than locally produced rice stating that increase in importation tariff would also enhance profit.