Rice price will fall by November -FG

The Federal Government has declared that the
price of rice would start to fall from November this
year.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,
Chief Audu Ogbeh, said this in Abuja yesterday
while addressing members of the Senate
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

According to him, more Nigerians have returned to
their various farms and by the next harvesting
season next month, the price of rice would start to
crash.

Ogbeh who also stressed that his ministry would
not encourage rice importation because it would be
detrimental to local production said:

“We will not encourage rice importation and
there is no way our ministry or government
can be involved in importing rice when we are
working hard to be self-sufficient in local
production. By November when the full-scale
harvest starts, rice prices will fall,” the
minister said.

Early last month, the government had warned that
the price of rice might hit N40,000 a bag. It is
currently being sold around N20,000.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural
Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, had
said that the $22bn annual food import bill had led
to the astronomical rise in the price of rice and
other commodities.
He stressed that if Nigerians failed to produce
some of the items being imported before
December, the price of rice could skyrocket to
N40,000 a bag.