‘The story of poor quality Nigerian rice has changed’

Amidst concerns in various quarters that locally processed rice has inferior quality, compared to foreign rice, Mr. Andy, the manager of Ebony Agro, producers of Ebony rice, has said that there is no reason for concern. He said: “Our locally processed rice now competes favourably with imported ones as the integrated mills churn out rice […]

Amidst concerns in various quarters that locally processed rice has inferior quality, compared to foreign rice, Mr. Andy, the manager of Ebony Agro, producers of Ebony rice, has said that there is no reason for concern.
He said: “Our locally processed rice now competes favourably with imported ones as the integrated mills churn out rice without sand and stones, well-polished, graded and branded. It tastes better than the imported rice.”
Andy said this, recently, in Abuja while representing the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Engr. Charles Ugwu, on a Radio Nigeria programme known as Radio Links.
Speaking on the programme monitored by our reporter, the manager said that many Nigerians wrongly believed that local rice from the integrated mills contained stones and sand among other impurities that could cause cancer and other diseases.
“There are various categories of rice millers. Patches of individual micro or small scale local rice millers here and there can’t give the best, but the integrated rice millers produce high quality rice.”
The manager said that people now used to eat Nigerian rice without knowing it because some millers packaged and branded it as foreign.
He urged Nigerians to patronise locally produced rice.
Andy called on the government to create enabling environment to boost rice production and processing in the country, urging stakeholders to invest in the rice value chain.