Consumers of rice may in the coming days pay more for the grains as importers of rice are projected to face about 40 percent reduction in imports. This is according to the Competitive Africa Rice Platform. It comes on the back of India’s decision that it would restrict exports of non-basmati rice to calm domestic rice price that had risen more than 30% since October 2022.
The Chairman of the Competitive Africa Rice Platform, Yaw Adu Poku further impressed on financial institutions to offer the needed financial support to local rice farmers to boost their production to meet rice demands.
“Ghana imports significant amount of rice from India. So, of the volume of imports that come into Ghana; we should be prepared to lose about 40 percent of that or more because the other export countries have also hiked their prices. What this means is that, prices are going to go up, and it is going to affect the ordinary consumer,” he said.
“Rice farming is a technical art which needs amenities which are not available. Financial institutions in the country including the Bank of Ghana pay lip service to Agriculture,” he added.
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