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…As Customs mulls deployment drones to check rice smuggling

Very disturbing revelations have been made by some mega rice dealers in Lagos on why sales of locally produced rice are finding it hard to grow in Nigeria.

Undercover investigations by Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU), a research consultancy division of Media Hilights Integrated Company Limited, the parent group and publishers of Business Hilights news gateway have shown that there are two factors discouraging dealers in buying up the products for sales in market.

This is coming at a time, the leadership of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has vowed to deal ruthlessly with those involved in the smuggling of prohibited items, particularly rice as it was working with the Nigerian Air Force to deploy drones for surveillance along the borders.

The Deputy Comptroller-General, Enforcement, Investigation and Inspection, NCS, Aminu Dangalidima, said this during the issuance of 30 additional Toyota Hilux patrol vehicles to the Strike Force team of the service.

BHIU discovered among other things that the processed grains of several brands of local rice do not look attractive to many and this remains a big issue which the government is not willing to address.

A dealer in Lagos who pleaded anonymity told BHIU that “Am among the very first set of rice dealers that ordered for trailer load of local rice for sales, but to my greatest surprise, on display, the looks scares away buyers and it is not good for business”.

She said “Apart from the uninviting looks of the grains when the bag is opened, first set of buyers who patronized me came back to complain that if not eaten while hot, it immediately gets spoilt after few hours of getting cold.”

“You know all Nigerians are not hoteliers who will come and sell out. Nigerian families usually like to remain cooked rice for family members that will return home latter and before they return, it has already gone bad and become waste.

“These are the two factors that discouraged me to continue placing orders for more local rice.

“I love my country and I want Nigeria to become African leading rice producer, but a lot more need to be done by the government interns of research on how to get the best specie that will last longer without getting spoilt after cooking.

“Nobody wishes to waste his or her money in these hard times on a food that he or she knows will spoil after awhile.

“However, on the issue of stones, Nigerian rice do not have stones any more.

Another rice dealer in Iddo market revealed that “Not all the local rice usually get spoilt few hours after cooking, but it takes somebody who knows the better to go and buy it because no seller will tell you that his or her product spoils easily.

Continuing, she averred that “What government should do is to get the better ones and see how the supervising ministry can give producers of spoiling ones seedlings of better species so that the era of spoilt cooked rice will end.

“Another idea is to take the gains of the identified bad ones and go into research and come up with sustainable breed for farmers.

In her views, Nigerians love to consume local rice, but they are running away due to high spoliation ration when compared with foreign rice.

She argued that Thailand and India did not just start producing rice for export. They must have done series of researches before coming up with a quality that is export rated.

According to her, “All we have been hearing is mass rice production is going on in Nigeria but we have not heard about Rice Research Institute to drive specie development and consultancy for farmers.

It would be recalled that apart from drone involvement by Customs, the Federal Government had through the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh hinted that it would shut Nigeria’s land border with some neighbouring countries with seaports in order to halt the smuggling of rice into the nation.

Chief Ogbeh, who made the announcement at a leadership event for youths under the auspices of the Guardians of the Nation International in Abuja, had argued that in those neighbouring countries, “They do not eat parboiled rice (in that country); they eat white rice; and they use their ports to try and damage our economy. I am telling you now because in a few days, you will hear that the border has been shut; we are going to shut it to protect you, us and protect our economy.”

He noted that “Our other problem is smuggling. As we speak, a neighbour of ours is importing more rice than China is importing”.