Nigeria’s rice imports will jump 13 percent next year to 3.4 million metric tons, making Africa’s most populous country the world’s biggest rice importer after China, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“China and Nigeria are projected to remain the largest rice importing countries in 2019, followed by the EU, Cote d’Ivoire, and Iran,” the USDA said in its latest Rice Outlook released Tuesday. “Nigeria and Egypt are projected to account for the bulk of the 2019 import increase.”

The forecast growth is a setback for the Nigerian government, which plans to stop rice imports by the end of this year to save foreign currency. Production had increased more than 50 percent since 2012 to 3.7 million tons last year. Domestic demand rose 4 percent to 6.7 million tons in the 2017-18 year that ended in May.

President Muhammadu Buhari wants to diversify Nigeria’s economy away from hydrocarbons, and agriculture is one of the sectors he has bet on. The economy of Africa’s biggest oil producer is still recovering from a slump in 2016, after the crash in crude prices.

READ: Smugglers Thrive as Nigeria Tries to Keep Foreign Rice Away

Rice farmers in Nigeria have reported a drop in output since last year due to a combination of higher input costs, insecurity and widespread flooding in the main growing regions. At the same time, people are giving up traditional coarse grains in favor of rice in the country of almost 200 million people.

“The rain has not been favorable to rice farmers this year,” Mohammed Sahabi, chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria in Kebbi, one of the main rice-growing states, said by phone. “We lost more than 20,000 hectares of unharvested rice this year in Kebbi alone.”

Current global production exceeds consumption by 2.3 million tons, according to USDA, with 2018-19 “global ending stocks” projected to reach 163 million tons, 17.8 million tons more than previously forecast.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-14/usda-sees-nigeria-rice-imports-increasing-to-3-4m-tons-in-2019

PDP rule us for 16 years, sold $900b worth of crude oil, ordinary modular refinery, they could not build, we import everything; Rice, stew, petrol, pencil,groundnut......

The tyrant in Aso Rock has kept the country worse than he met it in 2015

Yet they said Thailand has shut down more than half of its rice plants abi na mills became Nigeria has supposedly reduced rice imports by over 95%. Their lies were quickly exposed then and now.

https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.vanguardngr.com/2018/03/ogbehs-claim-rice-false-says-thailand-ambassador/amp/

when last I chop rice sef, God go kill buhari and APC members

But where is Ogbeh-Ogbeni sef

Sirjamo:
PDP rule us for 16 years, sold $900b worth of crude oil, ordinary modular refinery, they could not build, we import everything; Rice, stew, petrol, pencil,groundnut......

in that 16 yrs pdp borrowed less than 6 trillion.



but apc has borrowed 12 trillion in 3 yrs. what have they done ?

The report is incomplete. We only imported those rice so as to use for our ongoing research in rice farming, and also as donations to IDP camps because our Nigeria rice is too expensive to give to the IDP's. Vote me in 2019 so that Nigeria can become the biggest rice exporter when we finish our research.


~ProsidentBuhari

Its a lie bloomberg. Nigeria has over 1 billion rice farmers under the dullard, to the extent that we feed the whole west Africa and the world at large. Buhari needs hanging.

Sirjamo:
PDP rule us for 16 years, sold $900b worth of crude oil, ordinary modular refinery, they could not build, we import everything; Rice, stew, petrol, pencil,groundnut......

CALM DOWN JAMIU MY YORUBA MUSLIM BROTHER. JUST ATIKULATE AND ALL YOUR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE WOULD BE A THING OF THE PAST

Jubril where at thou

Ok o