Cambodian rice being prepared for exports. Tuesday, 12 January 2010
By Bayo Akomolafe
Nigerian Compass News
THE high demand for rice by Nigeria has forced the prices of the staple food to soar in the international market.
With this, a global rice deficit of 6.7 million tonnes is expected this year, while lovers of the product will pay more for it.
The President of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association, Phou Puy, hinted that the rapid rises in grain costs, reported by vendors and rice brokers, were as a result of the demand by Nigeria and other countries in the West African sub-region.
He explained that the development had pushed Vietnam and Thailand into competition to buy Cambodian rice and export to Nigeria, Ghana and the Philippines.
He said that since last month, the cost of one tonne of milled fragrant rice (first grade) rose to $880 (about N132, 000) from $780 (about N117,000), with jasmine milled rice (second grade) up to $700 (about N105,000) from $660 (about N99,000) and poor-quality milled rice peaking at $450 (about N67,500) from $400 (about N60,000).
“There’s no way the prices will go down in 2010,” he said.
Also, the President of the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), Yang Saing Koma, said that unmilled fragrant and jasmine rice was becoming more expensive, rising to $336 (about N50,400) a tonne from only $288 (about N43,200) last month.
“This harvest season, Vietnam has rushed to buy unmilled rice from Cambodia to process at home for export,” he said.
He predicted that rice prices would rise 20 per cent this year due to shortages.
It would be recalled that the Thai Commerce Minister visited Nigeria to propose a Bilateral African Nations, Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).
It was learnt that majority of the agreement will be focused on the establishment of rice farms by the Thais in Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones.
Thailand has the fifth largest amount of land under rice cultivation in the world and is the world’s largest exporter of the product.
At present, there are plans to add a further 500,000 hectares to the existing 9,200,000 hectares already used for rice cultivation in that country.
The most produced strain of rice in Thailand is jasmine rice, which is one of the highest quality types, although it has a significantly lower yield rate than other strains.
Jasmine rice consequently fetches more than double the price of other strains available on the global market and is the most sought after.
Nigeria’s rice import is forecast to double supply growth by 2013. The rice import bill is currently thought to be around $1 billion (about N150 billion), with Asia responsible for supplying the population with enough rice to make up for the deficit.
Rice is indigenous to Nigeria and has been cultivated for the past 3,500 years, but the country cannot boast of supporting its population with enough production.
Despite various programmes, such as the National Accelerated Food Production project (NAFPP) set up in 1974; the World Bank-Assisted Development Programmes, set up in 1975; Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), which started in 1976; the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDs) established in 1977; the Back to Land Programme (BLP) and the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), both introduced in 1988; and, more recently, the National Land Development Authority (NALDA), local rice production has not met up with domestic consumption demands.
Although 360,000 tonnes of rice produced in the 1960s were enough to meet local demand, the 1.45 million tonnes produced in the 1990s were not enough.
Thus, importation of rice rose from 7,000 tonnes in the 1960s to 657,000 tonnes in the 1990s.
This created a serious drain on the country’s foreign exchange reserve, which stood at $407.5 million in the 1960s, but dropped to $58 million in the 1990s.
The drain on the foreign reserve led the Federal Government to ban rice imports in October 1985.
By Bayo Akomolafe
Nigerian Compass News
THE high demand for rice by Nigeria has forced the prices of the staple food to soar in the international market.
With this, a global rice deficit of 6.7 million tonnes is expected this year, while lovers of the product will pay more for it.
The President of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Millers Association, Phou Puy, hinted that the rapid rises in grain costs, reported by vendors and rice brokers, were as a result of the demand by Nigeria and other countries in the West African sub-region.
He explained that the development had pushed Vietnam and Thailand into competition to buy Cambodian rice and export to Nigeria, Ghana and the Philippines.
He said that since last month, the cost of one tonne of milled fragrant rice (first grade) rose to $880 (about N132, 000) from $780 (about N117,000), with jasmine milled rice (second grade) up to $700 (about N105,000) from $660 (about N99,000) and poor-quality milled rice peaking at $450 (about N67,500) from $400 (about N60,000).
“There’s no way the prices will go down in 2010,” he said.
Also, the President of the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), Yang Saing Koma, said that unmilled fragrant and jasmine rice was becoming more expensive, rising to $336 (about N50,400) a tonne from only $288 (about N43,200) last month.
“This harvest season, Vietnam has rushed to buy unmilled rice from Cambodia to process at home for export,” he said.
He predicted that rice prices would rise 20 per cent this year due to shortages.
It would be recalled that the Thai Commerce Minister visited Nigeria to propose a Bilateral African Nations, Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA).
It was learnt that majority of the agreement will be focused on the establishment of rice farms by the Thais in Nigeria’s Free Trade Zones.
Thailand has the fifth largest amount of land under rice cultivation in the world and is the world’s largest exporter of the product.
At present, there are plans to add a further 500,000 hectares to the existing 9,200,000 hectares already used for rice cultivation in that country.
The most produced strain of rice in Thailand is jasmine rice, which is one of the highest quality types, although it has a significantly lower yield rate than other strains.
Jasmine rice consequently fetches more than double the price of other strains available on the global market and is the most sought after.
Nigeria’s rice import is forecast to double supply growth by 2013. The rice import bill is currently thought to be around $1 billion (about N150 billion), with Asia responsible for supplying the population with enough rice to make up for the deficit.
Rice is indigenous to Nigeria and has been cultivated for the past 3,500 years, but the country cannot boast of supporting its population with enough production.
Despite various programmes, such as the National Accelerated Food Production project (NAFPP) set up in 1974; the World Bank-Assisted Development Programmes, set up in 1975; Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), which started in 1976; the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDs) established in 1977; the Back to Land Programme (BLP) and the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructures (DFRRI), both introduced in 1988; and, more recently, the National Land Development Authority (NALDA), local rice production has not met up with domestic consumption demands.
Although 360,000 tonnes of rice produced in the 1960s were enough to meet local demand, the 1.45 million tonnes produced in the 1990s were not enough.
Thus, importation of rice rose from 7,000 tonnes in the 1960s to 657,000 tonnes in the 1990s.
This created a serious drain on the country’s foreign exchange reserve, which stood at $407.5 million in the 1960s, but dropped to $58 million in the 1990s.
The drain on the foreign reserve led the Federal Government to ban rice imports in October 1985.
2 comments:
It is good news for khmer.
Good news for Khmer farmers. We must export direct to Africa, Europe, America and Australia so we can get a better price. Don't export to Vietnam and Thailand because these two countries will re-export our rice to international markets and offer us cheap prices.
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