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From: Magnus Eze, Abuja
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has assured Nigerians that price of rice would soon crash in the market.
A 60 kilogram of Nigerian rice presently sells for N17,000 but the minister assured that following Federal Government’s intervention, including negotiation with the millers, the price would drop to about N13,000.
Ogbeh in an interaction with newsmen in Abuja also disclosed that efforts were on to see how millers could procure paddy at lower price.
“In July, 2015, one tonne of rice sold for N65,000. Last year June, one tonne of rice went to N150,000. So, the millers said as long as they were buying for N150,000 for a tonne of paddy and milling, they couldn’t sell for less than N17,000 for a bag of 50kg after milling.
“So, we called a meeting between millers and farmers and we are brokering an arrangement now where the price of paddy would drop reasonably to N120,000 per tonne of paddy. And the millers say that if they buy at N120,000, they can sell rice at the rate of N13,000 per 50kg,” he stated.
