Rice distributors are taking advantage of the closed border to defraud Nigerians by repackaging local rice in foreign bags and selling same in exorbitant price.



The scheme which was revealed in a footage posted below captured the perpetrators packaging the local rice they bought from Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa and Adamawa at a cheap rate into foreign rice bags which they end up selling at high prices.







Consumers and local rice merchants in Katsina State have decried how some rice mills and foreign rice dealers were purchasing and allegedly re-bagging locally processed rice which they resell as foreign at exorbitant prices.

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Border closure has seriously affected the importation of foreign rice into the country, a situation that has increased demand for the locally produced variety, especially with the proliferation of modern rice mills across the country.



Farouk Abdu, a local rice dealer, said besides the newly established modern mills that were purchasing paddy rice in bulk, some foreign rice dealers have resorted to mopping up locally processed rice and re-bagging it to be sold at high price as foreign rice.



“If you go to Dandume, Kafur and Bakori, you will see how those rice dealers are mopping up the locally milled rice which they transport to Kano, where they just sieve and re-bag it as foreign one,” he said.

Farouk added that the development has caused the market price of the locally processed rice to skyrocket.



“This year we started selling the locally processed rice at N490 per measure and 100kg at N19,500, but now because of high demand, a bag costs N28,000 and a measure N700, the price that normally comes after the harvest period, which is around March,” Farouk also said.



He said many trailers load local rice on weekly basis out of Bakori, Kafur and Dandume, the three major local rice markets in the state. Alhaji Abdullahi Namairo, one of the dealers purchasing locally processed rice, told this reporter that because of high demand for rice generally, locally established rice mills could not meet up with the increasing demand of the produce hence they resorted to purchasing the already locally processed rice, which they sieve and polish before it is bagged and sold as made in Nigeria rice.



“Unlike how it was widely speculated, we add value to the produce we buy before we sell it as Nigerian rice, not foreign rice,” said Namairo.

He added that even those with penchant for foreign rice have no option now than to buy the local one because the foreign one is now either scarce or costly in the market.

Daily Trust noticed that there was bulk purchase of locally processed rice in Katsina markets but could not ascertain whether the produce was being re-bagged and sold as foreign rice as alleged by some merchants and consumers; especially that the ones purchased were being transported to Kano.

Usman Sani, a rice farmer, said the complaints came mainly from consumers and some dealers but farmers were celebrating the high cost of the produce.

“Rice farmers this year are happy because of the high demand of both paddy and locally processed rice in the market. It has reached the extent that farmers are being followed to their farms to buy paddy rice at not less than N10,000 depending on the variety,” said Sani.

Watch video below;

Source: https://focusnaija.com.ng/2019/10/18/distributors-purchase-local-rice-then-re-bag-as-foreign-sell-at-exorbitant-prices/