Nigerians are known to be heavy consumers of rice, as the country is among the world’s leading rice importers from Asia, especially Thailand and the Indian Sub-continent.
Though annual local rice production increased to 5.8 million tonnes in 2017, Nigeria still imports Basmati rice (among others) from India. Meanwhile, Ofada rice (named after a town in Ogun State) is the umbrella name for all locally grown rice in Nigeria and it is now considered a major staple throughout the country.
Locally grown rice is called different names in several parts of the country, such as Hakorin montol in Plateau/Nasarawa States and Jatau throughout Hausaland and Chad Basin etc. Other rice producing states include Anambra, Ekiti, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Cross River, Benue, Ebonyi, Kwara, Jigawa etc.
The story of states in Nigeria involved in rice production cannot be told without mentioning LAKE Rice -which is a rice brand name that came about as a result of a partnership between Lagos and Kebbi States.
Over the last few months, we have observed a perfectly correlated pattern between Ofada Rice and the largely imported Basmati Rice.
Nairametrics presents a comparison between the prices of Basmati rice and Ofada rice that were recorded in Nairametrics’ bi-weekly Household Food Prices Survey so far in 2018.
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