The President of Commodity Brokers Association of Ghana Yaw Ohemeng Kyei has called on the government to place 20% quota on rice import into the country.
In an interview with The New Crusading GUIDE on the listing of Rice on the Ghana Commodity Exchange, he said he does not understand why Ghana Rice Development Strategy (G-NRD) projects to end rice import by the year 2023 but government is not doing anything to progressively reduce the importation of rice though Ghana can produce 80% of the approximately 1,500,000MT of rice consumed in the country annually.
“The annual per capita rice consumption of 3.5% per annum is even greater than 2.5% per annum growth in population. That is a goldmine we can explore especially now that AfCFTA has commenced”
Mr Kyei contends that Ghana rice production for 2008 was 181, 000 MT whilst import was 395,000MT. Local production more than doubled in 2013 to 393,000 MT, however import increased to 638,000MT.
In 2020, rice production was 940,000MT and looking at the rate of growth in rice production, we can assume rice production in 2021 will not be less than 1,200,000 MT. If total consumption of rice is around 1,500, 000 MT then we can place quota of 20% quota on imported rice in order to strengthen and grow our local rice production and prepare for export.
“Nigeria banned importation of rice although its land borders at the time it had not listed rice and still has not listed rice on the Nigeria Commodity Exchange, Ghana has listed rice on its Commodity Exchange and that means rice in Ghana has been graded, quality assured and price determined scientifically. If these conditions are right and rice traded can be compared with any international rice, and our sufficiency rate is 80%, what is government waiting for?”
The Agric Minister in 2020 promised to ban importation of rice in 2 years. It will not be prudent for government to ban rice imports but must impose a quata starting from this year with 20% quota on imported rice, then 10% quota in 2022 before outright ban in 2023.
A quota of 20% on imported rice will translate to increased employment of over 200,000 people in the Agric value chain, reduction in inflation to at least 1 basis point due to economies of scale, correction of balance of payment challenged and inflows of foreign exchange as rice may be exported due to AfCFTA.
