We Caught Some People Re-bagging Our Rice As Foreign Brand –Coscharis

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE 

As scarcity of imported rice hits major Nigerian markets, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, President of Coscharis Group, has revealed that his company caught some dealers repackaging its locally grown Coscharis rice brand into foreign bags.

Speaking in an interview with some national dailies, Maduka said his Coscharis Farms Limited has stopped two of their dealers from further carrying out any transaction with them.

“We stopped two of our dealers from carrying out any transaction with us. They would carry our rice and re-bag them into a foreign bag and sell. So, you may not be seeing our brand in the market because of things like this. We are selling our rice to our distributors today at N14,500; the foreign smuggled rice is selling at N25,000,” he said.

The Coscharis Group boss recently unveiled his ultra-modern rice processing mill in Igbariam, Anambra State.

The $35 million first phase of the rice mill which has a milling capacity of 40,000 MT per annum was officially launched last Tuesday at a ceremony in Anambra attended by Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele and various Nigerian state governors.

The entire project is expected to have an annual milling capacity of 120,000 MT when completed by the end of 2020 according to the business mogul.

Nigerians consume more than 5 million metric tons of rice annually, with a significant portion of its consumption needs sourced from imports.

But a recent survey carried out by Nairametrics Research showed that some major rice dealers across Lagos State and other parts of the country are reportedly packing locally manufactured rice into foreign bags, as prices jump higher. This was aftermath of weeks of sustained border closure by the Federal Government.

The report further showed that the visited markets now have various brands of locally made rice in large stock, although with a significant 12.9% increase in price, from an initial average of N18,000 to N19,500.

Specifically, the available imported rice is now being sold at an average of N26,000 which has now forced many Nigerians to patronise Made-in-Nigeria rice and other locally produced food items instead of the imported ones.

Maduka’s Coscharis Farms started operations in 2014 as an integrated rice processor to meet part of the estimated 5.9 million MT annual rice demand in Nigeria.

Coscharis Farms currently has close to 3,000 hectares of land for rice cultivation in Anambra and an irrigation system on its farm to enable multi cycle rice cultivation.

The Farms has a robust farmer out grower development programme within Anambra State, and its environs that aims to reach thousands of farmers that could provide rice paddy to its mill when completed.

“We want to process paddy harvested from our farm into best quality rice. We want to contribute significantly to the government’s efforts to ensure food sufficiency through local production of rice. In addition, we want to set the pace for production of best quality local rice that will cause our people to change their preference from imported rice to locally milled rice which is known to be rich with important nutrients,” Maduka said at the launch of the rice mill.

In June, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the approval of the setting up of 10 new rice mills across the federation as one of its strategy in improving agriculture through the value chain.

Leading Agri-business firm, Olam Nigeria Limited also own a multi-million dollar integrated rice mill in Nasarawa State, fitted with the capacity to produce 36,000 metric tonnes of milled rice per annum.

While the Lagos State-owned rice mill in Imota is nearing completion.

The Imota mill, with a projected 32 metric tons per hour production capacity, is expected to create more than 200,000 jobs in the agricultural sector and also produce approximately 130million Kg of processed rice per year.