Consumers Seek Alternatives As Rice Price Increases

Following the recent
announcement by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri that the price of rice could rise to as much as N40,000.00 per bag by December, if nothing is done to increase local production of the commodity, consumers have resorted to seeking alternatives to the staple food item.
According to investigations by The Tide on Monday, some consumers were seen abandoning rice and going for items like yam, potato and their likes.
For Mrs Chinwe Uchendu, a housewife who spoke to The Tide, it was not a big deal that one must eat rice on daily basis.
According to her, “our major staple is garri, so why lose sleep over high cost of rice”.
A yam seller at the yam zone at the popular Creek Road market in Port Harcourt, Mallam Shehu Musa, who also spoke to our correspondent explained that in the past few weeks, sales of yam has increased.
He further explained that some of his colleagues who deal on rice have been lamenting over the decline in sales in the recent past.
Another housewife, Mrs Goodday Benson, who spoke to The Tide said for now she was excluding rice in her family’s menu.
She explained that every month, she buys at least a half bag of rice for the family, but since the price rose from N9,000 to up to N12,000 she has resorted to looking for alternatives to rice.
It could be recalled that the minister in his speech stressed the need for Nigerians to stop the importation of food items.
He noted that if care was not taken the price of rice would skyrocket to N40,000 per bag before December.
The Senator made the remark, recently while speaking in Yenagoa during a town hall meeting even as he disclosed that Nigeria spends about $22b a year on food importation.