The government commits to reduce the annual rice import bill

Business news for Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-10-28

Richard Twumasi-Ankrah, director of the Seeding Secretariat for Food and Employment at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, says the Ministry is fully committed to reducing the annual rice import bill.

He said that rice imports were high because the local rice industry in the past was plagued with challenges, requiring the import of substantial quantities to supplement domestic demand.

Twumasi-Ankrah spoke at the Mama Gold local jasmine rice launch presented by Olam Ghana.

Olam Ghana is leveraging its established operational infrastructure and extensive supply network to collaborate with rice growers and processors in the Volta, Ashanti and Eastern Regions to produce and store the rice.

Twumasi-Ankrah said that rice was one of the priority crops promoted in the framework of the Food and Jobs Planting Campaign (FSY) and highlighted that the main effort of the Ministry had been aimed at implementing a strategy to increase productivity at the level of The farms.

He said government intervention had improved yields from an average of 2.72 metric tons per hectare in 2016 to an average of 4.2 metric tons per hectare in 2019, adding that local rice production has increased from 688,000 tons. metric rice production in 2016 to a total rice production of 925,000 metric tons in 2019.

For her part, Ms Christiana Anim-Asare, Marketing Director of Olam Ghana, said: “We are proud to be the first company to source from local suppliers and launch a brand of rice that is totally ‘Made in Ghana’.

“With our knowledge of the market and experience in growing, sourcing and distributing rice in Africa, we have done extensive work to ensure that Mama Gold will deliver the clean, well packaged and tasty local jasmine rice that Ghanaians want. Beyond satisfying the requirements of our consumers, increased economic activity around locally produced rice will have a positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of many farmers and households, ”said the marketing manager.

He said the launch of Mama Gold would support and continue the development of rice farming in Ghana and the government’s initiative to boost domestic rice production and processing to promote self-sufficiency and improve the country’s currency position.