Nigeria imports rice worth $500m from
Vietnam
29.01.2015
The Nigerian-Vietnam Chambers of Commerce and
Industry says that the Nigerian government’s yearly rice import bill from
Vietnam has hit about $500 million. The President of the chamber, Prince Oye
Akinsemoyin, said in an interview that Vietnam was also spending about $100
million to import agricultural products such as raw cashew nuts, cassava and
oil palm from Nigeria.Indeed, Nigeria imports 1 million metric tonnes of milled
rice yearly from different countries, such as India, Thailand and
Vietnam.Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper quotes Akinsemoyin as saying that
Nigeria’s imports covered a wide range of commodities, including those of
Vietnam’s strengths such as rice.
He listed Vietnam’s major exports to Nigeria to
include rubber, electric and electronic products, footwear, plastics,
handicraft and fine art articles and construction materials, while the country
imports from Nigeria raw cashew nuts, fruits, cotton and minerals.Akinsemoyin
stated: “Basically, Nigeria exports agricultural products. At the moment,
Vietnam is the largest importer of Nigeria’s raw cashew nuts. Vietnam’s cashew
import from Nigeria is about a $100 million yearly. Nigeria exports
agricultural items like Cassava with which Vietnam produces starch and the raw
materials
Vietnam imports sea foods from Nigeria, like
shrimps, fish; also oil palm, which is processed to palm oil, which goes into
local production of creams and cosmetics Vietnam imports food items like
coconut and also beans and fruits from Nigeria.
http://www.blackseagrain.net/novosti/nigeria-imports-rice-worth-500m-from-vietnam
Rice trade: Potential to
export 0.6m tons to China
KARACHI: Federation of
Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Senior Vice President Abdul
Rahim Janoo has emphasised the need of increasing rice exports to China since
there is a great demand for it. Pakistan exported 353,675 tons of rice to China
amounting to $128 million during the last fiscal year. “Pakistani rice is very
much liked around the globe due to its taste and quality, and we can take
advantage of the good relations between Pakistan and China.” He was of the view
that there is a potential to export 600,000 to 700,000 tons to China. “We are
hopeful that the Chinese government will consider importing an additional
200,000 tons of Pakistani rice as it is also importing a huge quantity from
other countries.”
Published in The Express
Tribune, January 29th, 2015.
APP published 29 jan 2015
Pakistan’s rice export capability 600,000 -700,000 tons: FPCCI for
exporting additional 200,000 tons to China
As
Pakistan is capable of exporting about 600,000 -700,000 tons of rice to China,
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Senior Vice
President asked the Pakistan government to consider more rice exports to China
keeping in view of the good relations between the two countries.There is a lot
of demand for Pakistani rice in China. Pakistan exported around 353,675 tons of
rice worth $128 million to China in FY 2013-14 (July – June). But considering
the reputation of Pakistani rice in China, the FPCCI Official, Pakistan
government can negotiate with the Chinese authorities to import an additional
200,000 tons of rice from Pakistan yearly.
He noted that he is hopeful that China would
honour their request due to a large domestic demand for rice.China imported
around 2.267 million tons of rice in 2013, and around 2.244 million tons of
rice in the first eleven months (January – November) of 2014, according to data
from China Customs General Administration. On the other hand, Pakistan exported
around 3.16 million tons of rice FY 2013-14, down about 7% from around 3.4
million tons exported in 2012-13. The South Asian country exported around 1.84
million tons of rice (around 278,973 tons of basmati and around 1.56 million
tons of non-basmati) in the first six months of FY 2014-15.
When Farmers
Gather In Abuja To Celebrate
— Jan 29, 2015
Penultimate Friday in Abuja, the roads around
the Federal Secretariat Complex bordering the Eagle Square were closed, not for
political campaign rally, but by a gathering of over 23,000 farmers from all
states of the federation. Their reason for gathering was summed up in the name
emblazoned on banners, caps, T-shirts and other publicity materials. They were
celebrating Agricultural Festival, coined as AgriFest 2015, for short.Any
passer-by might be right to wonder why farmers would come from the rural countryside
to Abuja to disturb the peace and serenity of the city. But, listening, their
stories seem so compelling and needed to be told by themselves.
The theme of their message was simple: that the
Nigerian farmers have never had it so good. As rural farmers took turn to give
testimonies of transformation in their economic outlook, they spoke about
increase in production. “Our crops are doing well and our children are well
fed; there is much laughter and dancing in our villages.’ This was a common
refrain among the jubilant farmers.And they thought they should honour he who
stood behind them and gave them a new lease of life. The farmers said that,
across various commodities, “we have been beneficiaries of 10 to 50kg of
improved seeds (or seedlings), and two to three bags of fertiliser without
having to beg or bribe anybody.
” The AgriFest 2015, to them, was a good
platform to share their stories of the amazing advances made in Nigeria’s
agricultural sector in the last three years. Their gratitude was on what the
Agriculture Minister, Akinwumi Adesina, and his boss, President Goodluck
Jonathan, have done for them.Going through the exhibition pavilion was a
spectacle, especially seeing former government functionaries displaying
products emanating from their individual efforts in the agricultural sector.
Charles Ugwu, a former minister of Trade and
Industry and Michael Aondoakaa, a former minister of Justice and attorney
general of the federation, were seen standing by bags of rice milled from their
individual mills. Nearby were displayed rice brands milled by another prominent
local rice miller, belonging to a former member of the National Assembly. Ebony
Rice, Miva Rice and UMZA Rice respectively adorned the exhibition line,
competing for attention.Going by the disclosures of farmers, agro-dealers and
other investors, it became clear that agriculture is no longer a sector to be
ignored, much less despised. Individuals that were once regarded as of no
consequence, just because they are farmers, are now rising to the forefront.
To further lend credence to the renewed
interest in agriculture, the presence of the trio of Ugwu, Aondoakaa and
Mohammed Abubakar of UMZA fame are a testimony to the changing fortune of
agriculture in Nigeria.Anthony Egbe, a cocoa farmer from Boje in Boki LGA of
Cross River State, says he now has a voice among his peers, simply by being a
farmer. He puts it this way: “When I speak in my community, people listen. And
when decisions are to be taken in the community, they send for me and seek my
opinion because I am now a voice to be reckoned with; this remarkable
transformation in my life came through my participation in ATA.” It might not
be right to ignore these evidences emanating from the rural farmers, the urbane
and influential investors and the rising population of young Nigerians that now
make inroad to agriculture.
If these people say they feel the impact of the
agricultural transformation of the present government in Abuja and thought they
needed to come to showcase their success, then so be it. On the face of it,
agriculture touches everyone directly, at least at the level of daily
consumption of food. At the level of price, availability, quality and quantity,
we need to truly take the subject seriously, at least going by the direct stakeholders’
testimonies.Beyond food production, the latest release by the National Bureau
of Statistics needs a closer look. It shows that the agricultural sector grew
by 9.19% (year-on-year) in Q 3 of 2014, up by 2.7% points from Q3 of 2013.
The agricultural sector grew by 38.53% between
third and fourth quarters of 2014, with crop production being the main driver,
with a growth of 43.5%. Stability of food prices during 2014 December through
the period of festivities has been attributed to increased food production
under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of President Goodluck
Jonathan.ATA could safely be described as a well thought-out policy with great
gains for Nigeria, especially seen through the various facets of the value
chains.
This time, areas that have been hitherto
untapped are reportedly experiencing real growth. Apart from NBS data, the
claims of the agents of this present government might need to be taken with
seriousness as data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN,
and from surveys conducted by the International Food and Policy Research
(IFPRI) of the World Bank corroborate the impact of ATA.The federal government
needs to embark on more sensitisation of the Nigerian farming populace to make
them gain more understanding and wider acceptance of the electronic wallet of
the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES), which is now being upgraded by the World
Bank.
It means
we need to take these interventions more seriously if foreign agencies are
seeing some things in them that we seem not to see locally. GES, an input
delivery programme for delivering two to three bags of fertiliser and 10 to
50Kg of seeds via an electronic voucher sent to farmers’ phones need to be
brought into the wider context of economic decisions at the federal and state
levels, particularly by the states that are wholly agrarian.The Minister of
Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, has said over and over that GES has impacted
tremendously on national milled rice production, up 100% from 3.5million MT in
2011 to 7.1million MT in 2014.
This might be the underlying factor for the
stable price of milled rice in the market last December, when – traditionally –
prices doubled in previous years. We are told that the socio-economic impact of
GES and other ATA intervention has been similarly remarkable. In job creation,
3.5 million jobs have been estimated as created and a whooping N777 billion of
net value generated by farmers within the past three years and the impact on
the rural economy has been described as transforming on the lives of ordinary
people.Governor Saidu Usman Dakingari of Kebbi State had this to say about ATA
interventions in rice production in his state: “There is no poverty or
unemployment in Kebbi State due to the massive production of rice in the
state.” Already, the production of rice in the wet and dry seasons in the
Northwestern Nigeria has led to a decline in the number of people who typically
migrate to the Southwest to work as cobblers and informal security men (‘mai
guard’) in off season periods.
In 2014,
the media was awash with the announcement of the $1 billion commitment that
Dangote Group has made to rice production, exemplified by the MoU Aliko Dangote
himself signed with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
on August 1, 2014.The story of a major importer of rice now venturing into
local production is gladdening at this time. To hear that Elephant Group, a
leading importer of rice is committing $300 million to a rice mill and 10,000
hectares of rice paddy farming in Oyo State is a step forward in the right
direction. The rumoured investment of $218 million by Flour Mills of Nigeria
(FMN) in Niger State and $213million by Honeywell in Cross River State, amongst
others, portray a positive picture of a turnaround in the fortune of
agriculture and food production in Nigeria.
The
consequence is that Nigeria is expected to gradually withdraw from import
dependency and become a major producer and exporter of rice in a few years
ahead.In addition to the large investors is the story of a boom in small scale
producers and millers of rice. Reports have it that there has been an explosion
in the number of small rice mills. Very notable is the very rapid growth in the
largest small mill clusters at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, where the number of
operators has grown from 250 members in 2011 to 360 members in 2012 and to 450
in 2014.
From the words of the Minister of Agriculture,
this is only the beginning of the revitalisation of agriculture in the country.
As the economy desperately needs to be diversified away from petroleum, it
seems right to take the words of the minister seriously and watch the growth of
agriculture with optimism and all the support it requires so as to create the
much-needed job opportunities, revenues and food in abundance for Nigeria. From
the foregoing, it seems those farmers at the Eagle Square have good reasons to
gather and celebrate. Now we should be positive about when, in a few years’
time, the whole nation will celebrate as the impact of agricultural transformation
spreads further afield.
http://leadership.ng/features/406929/farmers-gather-abuja-celebrate
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First 2015 rice auction draws
strong interest from traders
PETCHANET PRATRUANGKRAI
THE NATION January 30, 2015 1:00 am
THE Commerce Ministry's first rice auction of the year drew great
interest yesterday, with 100 traders bidding on nearly a million tonnes of rice
from the government's stockpiles. This auction attracted many traders because
the ministry relaxed the regulations to allow bidders to purchase the entire
content of a warehouse, instead of only small lots.Duangporn Rodphaya,
director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said the ministry was highly
confident of being able to release a large proportion of the 999,763 tonnes of
rice that was up for bid since many traders were interested, reflecting high
demand in the market.
The ministry will soon finalise
the amount to be released and the bids accepted, after which the Rice Policy
and Management Committee will decide whether to sell this lot of rice at the
offered prices, she said.If this auction sells out, the government could
generate Bt11.68 billion or more, depending on the bargaining process.Of the
100 traders participating in yesterday's auction, 95 met the qualifications
after checking by the ministry. Four traders were disqualified after document
checks, while one called Siam Indica was barred because the firm has been
accused of involvement with an allegedly shady government-to-government rice
deal under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.Duangporn
said the ministry would continue to release rice from the stockpiles as demand
is high and supplies low in the world market. The next auction will be held
around the middle of next month.
In an effort to release about 10 million tonnes this year, Duangporn
said the government would also sell rice under G2G contracts to many countries
such as Iran and China, and to private enterprises.Throughout the year, the
ministry plans to auction off good-quality rice gradually, and in August, bids
will be accepted for about 3 million to 4 million tonnes of rice that degraded
while sitting in the government's warehouses.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/First-2015-rice-auction-draws-strong-interest-from-30252941.html
The goodness of brown rice
By Edna Garde
Edible Landscape
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
AS A country where rice is a staple,
eating brown rice is healthier.What is brown rice? How is it different from the
more commonly available and consumed white rice? Brown rice is also called
“unpolished” rice. It is actually how all rice looks like before it is
polished.Every rice grain has an outer layer of a slightly stiff cover called
the “hull” or husk. The husk is always removed from the seed for both white and
brown rice. The husk is what we locally call darak.
What is left exposed after dehulling
is a thin layer called the ‘bran’ layer. This brownish layer on the rice seed
clings to the seed and is removed through the polishing process.In brown rice,
the brownish bran layer is left intact and only the top stiff cover is
removed.Aside from the nutrients mentioned, brown rice like other whole grain
may substantially lower the risk of type-2 diabetes. Brown rice is also rich in
magnesium, a co-factor for more than 300 enzymes, including those involved in
the body’s use of glucose and insulin secretion. It is also rich in dietary
fiber that may help regulate the release of glucose, hence avoiding abrupt
spikes in sugar levels of consumers, hence safe for diabetics.
The fiber in brown rice may also help
in preventing colon cancer because it aids in digestion and reduces
constipation, as well as in the formation of gallstones.Somehow, there are
always advantages and disadvantages in brown rice. Its disadvantage is that it
becomes rancid if not properly stored. This is due to the oil-rich germ which
is a good medium for microbial growth.The reason that FNRI ( Food and Nutrition
Research Institute) is studying the stability of brown rice is to prolong its
shelf life.
The Institute has been regularly
giving me by email research update especially concerning food and nutrition as
I use it in my radio broadcast.Aside from promoting its production and
consumption, a technology that prolongs the shelf-life of brown rice will make
it more accessible, available, affordable and acceptable to the discriminating
demands of the consuming public.A good tip in storing brown rice is placing it
in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it would stay fresh for
about six months.Brown rice sold in supermarket costs double the price of white
rice, if not more than double.Now that you know the nutrients and benefits of
eating brown rice, it is time to go back to the basic.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/lifestyle/2015/01/28/goodness-brown-rice-388979
Rice imports to boost buffer stocks
29th
jan,2015 Thursday 9;02 am philipine inquireer
Riza T.Olchondra
MANILA, Philippines—The National Food Authority
(NFA) may have to import rice this year to boost buffer stocks of the staple
for the lean months.According to NFA Administrator Renan Dalisay, the
government is considering importation as a viable option to meet the mandated
30-day buffer stock.To meet the country’s daily rice consumption of 34,000
metric tons, the NFA may have to import about 500,000 MT before June, he
said.The NFA has to stock government warehouses with the grain to ensure stable
supply and tends to compete with private traders in buying locally grown palay.
Dalisay said the NFA Council is still
finalizing the terms of reference for the rice procurement, including the
volume and ideal arrival period.“By next week, we will have a final decision,”
he said.The government estimates that there are enough rice stocks in the NFA
warehouses to meet the nationwide daily requirement for the next 13
days.Dalisay also assured the public that no substandard rice from Thailand
entered the Philippines as part of last year’s government-to-government rice
procurement deal.
The government has imported about 500,000
metric tons of rice as of September 2014. Some 300,000 MT of this was awarded
to Thailand and the remaining 200,000 MT to Vietnam.The imported rice was
shipped to the Philippines in three tranches—200,000 MT (40 percent) on Oct.
15, another 200,000 MT (40 percent) on Nov. 15, and 100,000 MT (20 percent) on
Dec. 15.During the period, the Thai government was reported to have discovered
in its rice audit that more than 90 percent of their existing stocks in
state-run warehouses were substandard for commercial sale and were deemed
“inedible.” These resulted in a loss of confidence among international buyers.
http://business.inquirer.net/185719/rice-imports-to-boost-buffer-stocks#ixzz3QLsbhw2V
Philippines to import 500,000 tonnes of rice in March
Thursday, 29 January 2015 09:06
The Philippines has announced that it will import 500,000 tonnes of rice in March 2015 to boost buffer stocks of the staple
for the lean months
According to the United States Agriculture department
forecast, the Philippines may import 1.6mn tonnes of rice in 2015. (Image
source: IRRI/Flickr)
According
a government official, the state grains procurement agency National Food
Authority (NFA) wants the shipments to arrive in two batches of 200,000 tonnes
and one batch of 100,000 tonnes.The official revealed that the NFA might go for
a government–to–government deal, similar to its transactions in 2014 with
Vietnam and Thailand.“Fresh demand from the Philippines could give a boost to
falling rice prices in top producers and sellers such as Thailand and Vietnam,
which are the country’s key suppliers.
The Philippines usually buys rice early in the
year to prepare for the lean harvest season that begins in July,” added the
official.The Southeast Asian nation bought more than 1.8mn tonnes of rice from
Vietnam and Thailand after the typhoon Haiyan destroyed crops in November 2013,
prompting the government to release supplies from state stockpiles for relief
operations and to arrest the sharp increase in local retail prices.
http://www.fareasternagriculture.com/crops/agriculture/philippines-to-import-500-000-tonnes-of-rice-in-march
First 2015 rice auction draws strong
interest from traders
PETCHANET
PRATRUANGKRAI
THE
NATION January 30, 2015 1:00 am
THE Commerce Ministry's first rice
auction of the year drew great interest yesterday, with 100 traders bidding on
nearly a million tonnes of rice from the government's stockpiles. This auction
attracted many traders because the ministry relaxed the regulations to allow
bidders to purchase the entire content of a warehouse, instead of only small
lots.Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said
the ministry was highly confident of being able to release a large proportion
of the 999,763 tonnes of rice that was up for bid since many traders were
interested, reflecting high demand in the market.
The ministry will soon finalise the
amount to be released and the bids accepted, after which the Rice Policy and
Management Committee will decide whether to sell this lot of rice at the
offered prices, she said.If this auction sells out, the government could
generate Bt11.68 billion or more, depending on the bargaining process.Of the
100 traders participating in yesterday's auction, 95 met the qualifications
after checking by the ministry. Four traders were disqualified after document
checks, while one called Siam Indica was barred because the firm has been
accused of involvement with an allegedly shady government-to-government rice
deal under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Duangporn said the ministry would
continue to release rice from the stockpiles as demand is high and supplies low
in the world market. The next auction will be held around the middle of next
month. In an effort to release about 10 million tonnes this year, Duangporn
said the government would also sell rice under G2G contracts to many countries
such as Iran and China, and to private enterprises.Throughout the year, the
ministry plans to auction off good-quality rice gradually, and in August, bids
will be accepted for about 3 million to 4 million tonnes of rice that degraded
while sitting in the government's warehouses.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/First-2015-rice-auction-draws-strong-interest-from-30252941.html
UN: Rice
prices to fall further as Thailand auctions rice mountain (VIDEO)
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 29, 2015 06:18 PM
BANGKOK, Jan 29 — Rice prices will probably
extend losses as Thailand, the top exporter, auctions its record reserves, said
the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation.Global production and
stockpiles will be close to all-time highs in 2014-2015, said David Dawe, a
senior FAO economist.
Demand
growth isn’t very strong as China and Nigeria, the biggest importers, have a
good level of stockpiles, he said in an interview, without giving any
figures.Prices in Chicago dropped to a four-year low this month after a 23 per
cent plunge in 2014, helping cut global food costs to the lowest since 2010.
Thailand is selling 1 million metric tonnes today, about 9 per cent of annual
exports, in the first of a series of auctions to cut the 17.8 million-tonne
inventory built up by a government purchase programme.
“The
sale will definitely depress the market,” Dawe said in Bangkok today. “The
world is well supplied.”Futures fell to US$10.705 (RM38.83) per 100 pounds
(45.3kg) on the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday, the lowest level since August
2010. Thai 5 per cent broken rice, an Asian benchmark, tumbled 35 per cent to
US$422 a tonne yesterday from a three-year high in 2011. Global stockpiles will
be 177.4 million tonnes in 2015, 30 per cent above the average in the past
decade, FAO data show.
A Thai vendor weighs a bag of rice at a market
in central Bangkok, in this July 26, 2013 file photo. Thailand plans to unload
10 million tonnes of rice this year, and 7.8 million tonnes in 2016. ― Reuters
picLargest auction
The Thai
government plans to unload 10 million tonnes this year and a further 7.8
million tonnes in 2016. One hundred bidders participated in the auction, the
biggest single offering since 2004, according to the Department of Foreign
Trade. Preliminary results may be released later today.“If they put so much on
the market and that drives prices down, they will not keep auctioning 1 million
tonnes a month because they’ll undercut the value of their own stocks,” Dawe
said.
“Eventually, they’ll have to find other
outlets such as animal feed and ethanol production to reduce the
holdings.”Indonesia and the Philippines are working toward self- sufficiency
and have boosted their reserves, which will give them flexibility in planning
imports, Dawe said. Only crop damage from bad weather will boost demand, he
said.“It’s not just Thailand that has stocks to get rid of,” he said. “The
world in general has a very high level.”
The quality of Thai stockpiles is “a big
unknown” which could expose buyers to risks, Dawe said. — Bloomberg
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/money/article/un-rice-prices-to-fall-further-as-thailand-auctions-rice-mountain-video#sthash.88o4M93b.dpuf
Import
curbs in Iran adds to woes of Basmati rice traders
By Sutanuka Ghosal, ET Bureau |
29 Jan, 2015, 06.20AM IST
Basmati demand in the domestic market has not picked up despite a
price fall in the last six months following Iran's decision to put a ban on
imports.
ET SPECIAL:
KOLKATA: Basmati
demand in the domestic market has not picked up despite a price fall
in the last six months following Iran's decision to put a ban on imports.
Retailers and branded players say that consumers are anticipating a further
fall in prices, which are around 30-40% lower now. Exporters are the worst
sufferers in the current fiscal year as they will have to book losses since
they are unable to clear the inventory. "Iran's ban on basmati
rice imports has affected our exports. And the domestic market is
also down. We will have to book losses this fiscal year," said Bal Krishan
Mittal, managing director of Punjab-based Gurdaspur Overseas, a basmati rice
exporting firm.
The
branded players are offering 20% to 30% discounts to beef up sales in the
domestic market and to liquidate stocks. "We are running trade schemes in
which we are offering discounts. Earlier, consumers used to stock basmati rice
if they had got it at a lower price. But now they are purchasing basmati
according to their requirement. There is a general sentiment in the market that
prices may fall further," said Uday Nayak, business head (domestic
market), Shri Lal Mahal, a 108-year-old basmati rice player.
The company sells basmati rice under the brand name Empire, Heena, Royale,
Mughlai, Supreme and Neelam. In the local mom-n-pop shops, basmati offtake has
not surged and the movement is also slow in the organised retail space, said MP
Jindal, president of All India Rice Exporters' Association. "It is a bad
year for exporters. However, a delegation is going to Iran by the end of this
month to find out how long will this ban continue and when will the fresh
orders be placed by Iran.
Traders are currently shipping only rice consignments with permits
of last year to Iran," Jindal said. A section of the industry fears that
farmers may bring down acreage under basmati rice next kharif season if this
price fall continues. India's basmati crop output has been around 81 lakh tonne
last kharif, or summer, season, compared with 66 lakh tonne in 2013.
Incidentally, Iran has barred rice from other countries as its local crop is
reported to be good this year.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/import-curbs-in-iran-adds-to-woes-of-basmati-rice-traders/articleshow/46049254.cms
Agri exports to see moderate rise as Basmati rice
shipment declines
By: Sandip Das |
New Delhi | January 29, 2015 5:04 am
India’s
agricultural and processed food exports in the current fiscal are expected to
see a moderate growth in comparison to the previous year, mainly due to the
anticipated fall in shipment of Basmati rice.Official sources told FE that
decline in shipment due to dip in Basmati rice export would be offset by
increase in buffalo meat and fruits and vegetables shipment during the fiscal
year.As per the data available with Agricultural and Processed Food Products
Export Development Authority (Apeda), India has exported goods worth of more
than R87,553 crore during April – November, 2014, which is marginally higher
than the shipment during the same period last year.Last fiscal, the country’s
agricultural goods exports from the Apeda basket was R1,36,920 crore.
“We expect the agricultural goods exports to increase marginally
this fiscal mainly because of slowdown in Basmati rice shipment,” Santosh
Sarangi, director, Apeda, said. In the first eight months of current fiscal,
buffalo meat exports have witnessed an increase of more than 17% to R19, 590
crore as compared to same period last year.However, with Iran the country’s
biggest exports destination for Basmati rice, putting a halt on rice imports
because of sufficient domestic stocks, India’s premium aromatic rice exports in
terms of volume could decline by around 10% in the current fiscal. In terms of
value of Basmati rice exports, the shipment decline could be sharper, industry
sources said.
Out
of total exports of 3.7 million tonne of Basmati rice from the country in
2013-14 , 1.4 million tonne of rice was shipped to Iran. Sources said the shipment
to Iran would fall to around 9 lakh tonne. Last fiscal, India exported Basmati
rice worth of R29, 291 crore.Meanwhile, a delegation from the commerce ministry
is visiting Iran early next month to discuss possibilities of reviving rice
exports.Besides rice exports, another worrying trend has been sharp fall in
realisation from Guargum shipments because of decline in prices.
The
realisation from Guargum, mostly used in the US- based oil exploration company,
has declined by close to 16% to R6,878 crore in Apri-November, 2014 as compared
to same period previous year.However, the shipment of processed vegetables and
fruits, have seen a sharp rise of 39% and 10% respectively in April-November,
2014. The value of exports of processed vegetables and fruits were R1,125 crore
and R2,329 crore respectively during the period.The shipment of other
commodities, which witnessed a rise, includes poultry products, groundnut,
cocoa products.Apeda has identified 20 odd clusters located across the country
for sustaining growth in the country’s food products exports in the future.
These
clusters include Basmati rice (Haryana & Punjab), buffalo meat (western
Uttar Pradesh), grape and grape wine (Nasik region, Maharastra), pomegranate
(Satara and Pune regions of Maharashtra), dehydrated onions and garlic
(Gujarat), poultry or egg (Namakkal) and mango pulp (Uttar Pradesh and
Maharashtra).“Indian agriculture seems to have a greater comparative trade
advantage than manufactured goods. This has been possible as the sector has responded
by undergoing a structural transformation,” a paper by the Commission for
Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) chief Ashok Gulati recently stated.
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/markets/commodities/agri-exports-to-see-moderate-rise-as-basmati-rice-shipment-declines/36240/
Traders warned against overpricing of NFA
rice
January 29, 2015
Cherry Joy D. Garma
LAOAG CITY, Jan. 29 (PIA) - The National Food
Authority (NFA) in Ilocos Norte said overpricing of NFA rice by traders will
lead to suspension of their accreditation and payment of fines.Beverly Peralta,
provincial manager of NFA-Ilocos Norte, said the agency has started monitoring
NFA rice outlets to ensure that traders are selling at standard
prices.“Accredited NFA rice traders caught selling at a price higher than the
regulated price will be suspended and will be fined with a corresponding
amount,” Peralta said.Prices of NFA rice ranges from P27 to P32 per kilo. The
cheaper variety has a dull white texture while the more expensive variety is
whiter.“
The only difference is the color, but
the taste is the same, they are both good,” Peralta said.To monitor the
commodity’s prices, the agency has deployed employees to check NFA outlets of
possible overpricing even as Peralta advised consumers to report to NFA
incidents of overpricing.“If sellers carry the NFA logo in their rice boxes,
then they are accredited traders,” Peralta said.She said consumers must be keen
in monitoring the sellers' weighing scale to avoid farud.The NFA has provided
weighing scales in several outlets to help the consumer monitor their rice
purchases. (MCA/CDG, PIA-1, Ilocos Norte)
http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1911421992132/traders-warned-against-overpricing-of-nfa-rice#sthash.ZGCZ6f2z.dpuf
Basmati exports likely to drop,
buffalo meat gains
TOMOJIT BASU NEW
DELHI, JANUARY 29:
While the share of Basmati rice in
India’s agri-export basket is likely to fall this fiscal, beef exports will
continue to post healthy returns, according to statistics provided by the
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority
(APEDA).The authority, under the Ministry of Commerce with 22 scheduled
products under its purview, undertook trade worth $22 billion in 2013-14 and
expects a slight decline this fiscal. India exported about Rs. 87,553
crore worth of agri-goods between April-November 2014 and had seen exports
hit Rs. 1.37 lakh crore overall last fiscal.Basmati rice, among the
key drivers for export earnings, has been hit as Iran is not allowing imports
due to sufficient stocks. India exported 3.7-3.8 million tonnes (mt) of Basmati
rice worth Rs. 29,291 crore last fiscal, with Iran importing about
1.4 mt. “Overall, we’re looking at lesser export volumes this fiscal, about 3.5
mt. The ban in Iran and downturn in the global economy, particularly in the
European Union, has resulted in lower demand for Basmati rice,” said Santosh
Sarangi, Director, APEDA.
Beef exports
Buffalo meat exports, which posted significant growth over the last
few years touching 1.5 mt worth Rs.26,458 crore in 2013-14, have continued
an upward trajectory. India exported 817,844 tonnes of buffalo meat
worth Rs. 16,083 crore between April-October.Sarangi, however, did
state that growth was flattening and competition from Brazilian beef exports,
which were costlier by about $400-500/tonne prior to their currency, real,
depreciating about 18 per cent against the US dollar over the last two months,
would post challenges for Indian exporters in the Gulf countries and China,
which imports 45 per cent of Indian buffalo meat that is routed through
Vietnam.“Growth this year in beef has been about 15 per cent, it was 30 per
cent last year. This is expected after continuous high growth over the last few
years. Our market penetration and new destinations, such as Russia were added
this year,” he said.
Growth potential
Grapes, processed foods and biscuits and confectionaries hold
considerable potential for growth and APEDA would be undertaking efforts to
promote these categories in 2015-16. “Our grapes have the advantage of being
harvested in a window when others do not, it’s an advantage and our penetration
in key markets like China, Taiwan and the US has been low. Processed foods,
particularly mango pulp, juices and juice concentrates, are another area
holding promise,” said Sarangi.Biscuits and confectionaries’ exports,
particularly to African countries, have grown from a base of $100 million in
2011-12 to about $170 million last fiscal. Sarangi believes this could hit
$350-400 million soon.
(This article was published on January 29, 2015)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/basmati-exports-likely-to-drop-buffalo-meat-gains/article6835140.ece
Nigeria: Can Nigeria Attain Rice
Self-Sufficiency This Year?
By Ahmed Dio Agbo, Nasiru Bello and
Usman A. Bello
Nigeria's rice self-sufficiency
struggle has been on for a long time now, yet the country remains the largest
importer of the staple food commodity with an average annual spending of about
$2 billion with the bulk of the imports coming from Asian countries, mainly
Thailand and India.Our domestic supply, estimated at about 3 million metric
tonnes is far from meeting our consumption requirement, which is put at over 5
million metric tonnes, a situation that encourages massive importation and
smuggling in order to meet local demand.The federal government has, however,
maintained that Nigeria will become self-sufficient in rice production and that
its importation into the country will be banned this year.
In an attempt by this administration
to achieve its production target on some crops, the government listed cassava
and other crops as its transformation crops, with extra fund allocated for all
the crops on the list but which failed to include rice and yet deciding to use
rice to major its performance in the agricultural sector.As a way to enhance
rice and other crops production and food self-sufficiency this year, the
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has been releasing three bags of
subsidised fertilisers and improved varieties of rice, maize, cocoa, cassava,
cotton and sorghum among others to farmers across the country in the past four
years.Rice farmers and others were also assisted by the government to boost dry
season farming activities in various parts of the country so as to generate
additional yield.
To complement the efforts of the
federal government, some state governments were said to have keyed into the
Agricultural Transformation Agenda and reportedly came up with various
programmes to boost rice production so as to meet the targeted time for ban in
importation.Yet, feelers from various stakeholders indicate that even with the
recent statistic of about 7 to 8 million metric tonnes output of paddy rice
reeled out by the Rice Investors Group, the 2015 target for rice
self-sufficiency remains bleak.This is because experts say that 7 to 8 million
metric tonnes of paddy rice translates to about 3.5 to 4 million metric tonnes
of milled rice, which falls below the domestic demand of over 5 million metric
tonnes per annum.Bridging the demand and supply gap in few months from now may
require a magic wand as many rice farmers are complaining of poor market among
other challenges and could abandon rice farming.
"I still have over 20 bags of
paddy rice harvested last year lying unsold. I pray to get buyers before next
farming season, if not I will be in trouble. In fact, I borrowed some money to
farm the rice," one of the rice farmers, Malam Adamu Abubakar lamented.But
the agriculture minister seems not to agree with what some of the rice farmers
are saying. Speaking recently on a Radio Nigeria programme tagged 'Politics
Nationwide', he maintained that a lot has been achieved in the rice value
chain, adding that the country's rice production has increased to 7 million
metric tonnes. He boasted that Nigeria will be a net exporter of rice in the
next three years, but was silent on the rice self-sufficiency and ban on
importation slated for this year.Considering so many factors at present working
against rapid increase in production of rice and other crops by Nigerian
farmers, many observers have expressed doubt in the country's ability to meet
up with the 2015 rice self-sufficiency and import ban target.
It would be recalled that in 2012,
farmlands for rice and other crops including livestock were destroyed by
unprecedented floods across the country, which affected business activities
including farming. Many of the affected communities fled their homes abandoning
their farms.The natural disaster created a big gap in food supply generally,
not rice alone, and made food prices to skyrocket due to shortage in supply.
Some government officials however dismissed the shortage in rice supply then
claiming it was artificial, but analysts said it was real and a threat to the
rice subsector. They attributed the situation to several factors including
inadequate investments in rice production, flood and insecurity in some parts
of the country.An analyst, Mr. Danladi Bala, believes that the problem of
ageing farmers coupled with our traditional farming method of hoe and cutlass,
which has discouraged young ones from going into farming as a business, is one
of the major factors militating against food production, including rice in the
country.
"Our land tenure system, which
has not been favourable to women whose main business is farming, is also not
helping matters. In many parts of Nigeria, women own no farmland they can call
their own and the government is not prepared to tackle this challenge. I doubt
if we can attain self-sufficiency in rice production in the near future,"
Mr. Bala said.Speaking to Daily Trust on the 2015 rice self-sufficiency target,
the president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Architect Kabiru
Ibrahim, maintained that whether the country is self-sufficient or not, the ban
can still be imposed to help local rice farmers, saying "we have
alternative crops such as guinea corn, maize, wheat and others which Nigerians
can depend on to cover the short fall."He recalled that when there was
bird-flu outbreak during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration,
poultry and poultry products importation and exportation was banned, smugglers
were checkmated and Nigerians depended on local production alone. "This
can work in the case of rice as well. I live near the border. All sorts of rice
are smuggled into the country to kill local market," he added.Some
stakeholders in the agricultural sector believe that the agriculture minister,
Dr. Adesina, has his magic wand, but the big question many farmers and others
are asking is, can Nigeria attain rice self-sufficiency this year amidst a
myriad of challenges facing the agricultural sector?
The Technical Adviser to All Farmers
Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Dr. Tunde Arosanyi said AFAN is not aware of the
programme where some farmers claimed they are self-sufficient in rice
production and can even export."On self-sufficiency and exportation of
rice to other countries, though there is improvement but the nation has not
reached self-sufficiency yet. If the tempo continues this way it would still
take up to four years before we can talk of sufficiency and exportation,"
he said.According to him, government is trying in terms of input but the three
bags to a farmer under the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) is not enough while
many farmers who are not captured under the GES do not have access to input,
stressing that more people need to be captured.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201501291256.html
Nigeria imports rice worth $500m from
Vietnam
The Nigerian-Vietnam
Chambers of Commerce and Industry says that the Nigerian government’s yearly
rice import bill from Vietnam has hit about $500 million. The President of the
chamber, Prince Oye Akinsemoyin, said in an interview that Vietnam was also
spending about $100 million to import agricultural products such as raw cashew
nuts, cassava and oil palm from Nigeria.
Indeed,
Nigeria imports 1 million metric tonnes of milled rice yearly from different
countries, such as India, Thailand and Vietnam.Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper
quotes Akinsemoyin as saying that Nigeria’s imports covered a wide range of
commodities, including those of Vietnam’s strengths such as rice.He listed
Vietnam’s major exports to Nigeria to include rubber, electric and electronic
products, footwear, plastics, handicraft and fine art articles and construction
materials, while the country imports from Nigeria raw cashew nuts, fruits,
cotton and minerals.Akinsemoyin stated: “Basically, Nigeria exports
agricultural products. At the moment, Vietnam is the largest importer of
Nigeria’s raw cashew nuts. Vietnam’s cashew import from Nigeria is about a $100
million yearly. Nigeria exports agricultural items like Cassava with which
Vietnam produces starch and the raw materialsVietnam imports sea foods from
Nigeria, like shrimps, fish; also oil palm, which is processed to palm oil,
which goes into local production of creams and cosmetics Vietnam imports food
items like coconut and also beans and fruits from Nigeria.
Signature
: APA
http://en.starafrica.com/news/nigeria-imports-rice-worth-500m-from-vietnam.html
New biotech hub
aims to nurture more rice researchers
Image credit: Flickr /
IRRI
The Lloyd T. Evans
Plant Growth Facility can mimic environmental conditions
Studying agriculture under conditions induced by
climate change is critical
The number of agriculture researchers in Asia is
falling by 1.2 per cent a year
[MANILA] A new research facility is
being put up by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to attract
more young researchers in Asia and other countries to study how rice can grow
sustainably in the face of climate change. IRRI
officials led groundbreaking rites last 27 January for the Lloyd T. Evans Plant
Growth Facility, a biotech hub with eight environmentally controlled chambers
to study climate change impacts on agriculture.
Set
to open by yearend at the IRRI complex in the Philippines, the hub allows
precise control of elements such as carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas levels,
light intensity, water management, night-time temperature and relative
humidity, while sensors will monitor plants to generate more accurate data. Through the facility, named after an
Australian plant physiologist and IRRI board member, scientists can mimic
environmental conditions as general trends of climate change point to
increasing temperature and prolonged dry spells in drier regions. “Studying agriculture under conditions
induced by climate change is critical,” Matthew Morell, IRRI deputy director
general for research, tells SciDev.Net.
He cites the worsening risks
from super typhoons like Haiyan which caused major agriculture losses in the
Philippines in late 2013. Part of
the solution to this challenge is enticing more young researchers to pursue
long-term career prospects in agriculture and providing easier access to
facilities and equipment, Morell says. “Globally,
we have a challenge with how young people [negatively] see agricultural
research and farming as careers. With climate change, the world needs more
scientists like we have never done before,” Morell notes.About 3.5 billion
people worldwide consume rice as their staple food. By 2050, to meet growing
consumption demands, farmers should produce 830 million tonnes of rice to feed
the world, up by 180 million tonnes from present production.
However, the number of agriculture researchers in Asia has been
declining by 1.2 per cent each year, excluding outlier data of 60,000
researchers from China, according to a 2008 report by the International Food
Policy Research Institute. Senior
IRRI plant breeder and geneticist Glenn Gregorio, who works on saline-resistant
rice in Africa and Asia, hopes that the facility will nurture top quality
researchers. “I hope through this facility, we can inspire our youth to see
that agriculture is an innovative field and one that can directly benefit and
feed our people,” says Gregorio. The
facility’s US$15 million construction budget came from the Australian
government through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural
Research.
This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's South-East Asia & Pacific desk.
This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's South-East Asia & Pacific desk.
http://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/farming/news/new-biotech-hub-aims-to-nurture-more-rice-researchers.html#sthash.tcblW9SG.dpuf
A Shift from Rice Importation as
Revenue Source
30 Jan 2015
Alhaji
Inde Dikko Abdullahi, Customs’ Comptroller General
From dependence on revenue from rice
importation, the Nigeria Customs Service has now stepped up efforts to boost
its revenue generation by focusing on other commodities, writes John Iwori
Apapa
port is unique in many ways. It is the hub for importation and exportation and
is also the busiest in the country. This is because even Eastern bound cargoes
are also shipped through Apapa port and the goods conveyed by road to the final
destinations instead the consignee using nearby ports such as Port Harcourt,
Onne, Calabar or Warri. Besides the fact that it is the headquarters of the
Lagos Port Complex (LPC), it remains Nigeria’s premier port. It is home to
Apapa Quay where Apapa Container Terminal (ACT), Africa’s largest container
terminal is located.
New Operators
ACT is
presently run by APM Terminals Limited (APMT), a subsidiary of the Danish
port operations and logistics giant, AP Moeller Maersk Group. This followed the
concession programme which led to the divestment of the federal
government from public ventures during the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s
administration. The exercise which kicked off in 2006 was supervised by the
Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). Since then, the running of the
nation’s seaports, especially cargo handling, have been in the hands of
concessionaires.
Though
the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) remains the landlord, it is no longer
involved in the day-to-day running of the nation’s seaports situated at Lagos,
Onne, Calabar, Warri, Port Harcourt, Sapele and Koko. The authority is now saddled
with the responsibility of common user services such as security, power, and
pilotage. It is however contestable if the authority has lived up to
expectations in the discharge of these responsibilities. This is due to the
fact that the concessionaires have not ceased to use every avenue to disparage
NPA for its inability to fulfil its mandate as enshrined in the agreement they
signed with the Federal Government through the authority.
The
bickering between the terminal operators and NPA aside, the Customs High
Command has continued to step up efforts in the attainment of set goals and
objectives. The service is saddled with three cardinal roles and
responsibilities. They are trade facilitation, anti-smuggling and revenue
generation. The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) which presently has Alhaji Inde
Dikko Abdullahi as its Comptroller General, said it was not relenting in
its quest to satisfactorily deliver on these statutory
responsibilities. Through its various formations across the country, NCS has
not left any stone unturned in the discharge of its functions. Abdullahi and
his management team have continued to step up efforts in discharge of its
mandate.
Some
of the areas it has shown capacity, capability, and competence are
anti-smuggling and revenue generation. Though smuggling across Nigeria’s
numerous borders have not been totally eliminated but it has been reduced
significantly. In the same vein, revenue leakages in the system are being
blocked. This is to ensure that every kobo generated by the service is paid
into the central till.
The need
to block avenues for leakages has become imperative in view of the low income
accruing into Nigeria’s coffers due to the dwindling price of crude oil in the
international market.This is understandable. In spite of the numerous mineral
resources that Nigeria is blessed with, the mainstay of the economy remains
crude oil. Therefore, any vagaries in the price of crude oil in the
international market affect the economy in no small way. This is why the
federal government seemed to be jolted since the price of crude oil started
tumbling at the international market.
The
government is now desperately seeking veritable alternatives to
crude oil as a means of boosting its revenues and meeting its obligations. It
is an indubitable fact that the maritime industry is seen as an avenue to get
the required income to boost the central till.Erstwhile President, Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA), Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, in a letter he addressed to the
Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, affirmed the ability of the maritime industry
to generate as much as N7 trillion annually if the industry is properly
harnessed. It remains to be seen how the federal government response and
address the content of Agbakoba’s letter in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile,
the NCS is now in the cynosure of all eyes as the government continues to
explore alternative avenues to fund the national budget. To avert disappointing
the authorities, the NCS has tasked its formations across the country to live
up to expectations in the areas of trade facilitation, anti-smuggling and
revenue generation.
Stakeholders’
Support
As the
command that has Nigeria’s premier port under its purview, the Apapa Area Command
has already hit the ground running to deliver. The command which has
Comptroller Charles EporweiEdike as its Customs Area Controller (CAC), knows
that it cannot deliver without carrying all stakeholders along in the scheme of
things. It has continued to organise stakeholders’ forum to ensure that that
they are not in the dark in the command quest to do things right as it is
obtainable in the developed world.During such fora, which often hold
regularly at various times at each Customs formation, issues that are likely to
cause friction and disrupt the cargo clearance processes are tackled.
By so
doing, issues that often lead to face-off between the service and stakeholders
are nib in the bud.At a maiden edition of the stakeholders’ forum in 2015, which
took place at Apapa penultimate Wednesday, Edike harped on the need for
all port users, particularly importers and freight forwarders who do business
with the command to always strive to do the right thing by avoiding under
declarations, under payment, concealment and other sharp practices. He made it
clear that if importers and licensed customs agents do the right thing, they
have no reason to be afraid of the new measures put in place by the service to
make cargo clearance smooth and efficient.He enjoined them to embrace change so
that they are not left out in the dynamics of modern cargo clearance procedures
as encompassed in the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) presently managed by
NCS. It would be recalled that PAAR replaced the Risk Assessment Report (RAR)
hitherto managed by the erstwhile scanner service providers (SSPs). The
contract of the SSPs, namely Global Scan Limited, SGS Nigeria Limited and
Cotecna Destination Inspection (CDIL) was revoked by the Federal Government
over a year ago following persistent complaints by port users. The SSPs were
handling the job under the aegis of the destination inspection (DI) scheme.
With the revocation of the three SSPs contract, NCS is now fully in charge of
cargo clearance at the nation’s airports, seaports, and international borders
across the country.
Shift
from Rice
One of
the fallouts of the new clearance regime in NCS is the fact that the Apapa Area
Command no longer depend on rice imported into the country through ACT as a
source of generating revenues into the coffers of the federal government.
But this appears strange to many stakeholders given that the command has for
decades depended on rice imported through it in generating revenue and meeting
its annual revenue targets as dictated by the Customs Headquarters, Abuja.
THISDAY
checks revealed that the command dependence on rice importation to generate
revenue impacted negatively on its fortunes in recent years. The trend has not
significantly changed in the last three years. For instance, data obtained by
THISDAY showed that in 2011 and 2012, the command depend largely on rice rather
than any other commodity or item to generate revenue.However, the trend begins
to change in the last two years as the government’s fiscal policies compelled a
hike on the import duty on rice. This resulted in a significant drop in
the quantity of rice imported into the country via the seaports. As a result,
the command was significantly affected.
Nevertheless,
the scenario began to change since 2013, as the command started to focus on
other commodities or items to generate revenue into the central till.Available
statistics showed that less rice is imported into the country through ACT
or LPC. The data showed that in 2013, the command raked in N230, 505, 251,
443. 00 revenue. Out of this, N4, 075, 474, 164.00 or a paltry 1.77 per cent
was realised as revenue from rice imported into the country while other
commodities was N226, 429, 777, 279.00 or 98. 2 per cent.
This
a major departure from the amount generated from the same commodity
in 2014. From the data, not less than N301, 272, 187, 970.00 was generated as
revenue by the command in 2014. Out of this, N36, 183, 325, 725.00 or 12.06 per
cent was from rice while other commodities accounted N265, 088, 862, 245.00
or 87. 9 per cent. These statistics showed a remarkable difference from what
was the norm in the previous years where the command virtually depended on rice
to rake in revenue to meet its annual revenue targets.Apparently elated by the
development, Edike told that the command is no longer dependent on
rice revenue. “We have succeeded in transiting from a command that largely
depends on rice in revenue generation to other commodities.
In fact,
revenue generated from rice imports into Nigeria through this command has
become insignificant unlike the case in the past”, he said.The CAC stated that
the command has worked hard to ensure that it does not depend on rice import to
generate revenue in the last two years. Giving an insight into the development,
he said, “discipline, commitment and dedication to duty by men and
officers of the command contributed tremendously to its present fortunes.Again,
the love for Nigeria by Nigerians is also a contributory factor to this
development. This is because if you are a patriotic citizen, you will not only
shun sharp practices but also discourage others from doing so.
Moreover,
the welfare and motivation of men and officers of the command by the
Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) and his management team has been
unprecedented.”According to him, the CGC has succeeded in turning Apapa
Area Command from a rice revenue dependent to a non-rice dependent one.“ He and
his management team succeeded in doing so as a result of the support and
encouragement they have been giving to this command since I was appointed the
CAC.The CGC has been providing welfare and motivation to men and officers of
the command. They received their salaries and allowances on time.
This is
why these personnel have been spurred to do their best in the discharge of
their statutory roles and responsibilities such as anti-smuggling, trade
facilitation and revenue generation,” he said.He explained that it was due to
what the CGC is doing for men and officers of the command that they do not look
back in the performance of their duties.“No matter how the task is, they put in
their best to ensure that they deliver”, he said.Edike argued that what the
Customs boss is doing is not out of place as it is based on the six point
agenda he set out to achieve when he took the reins of office.
He stated that he and his management team had
been pursuing this six point transformation agenda to the extent that it has
trickled down and rubbed off on the personnel in the command.“They have
continued to put in their best in the performance of their duties. They are
committed and dedicated to work. Therefore, I am not surprised that with the
support and co-operation of the personnel, the command has succeeded in making
the CGC achieve his goal of turning the command into non rice revenue one as
our records have shown,” he said.
Going
Forward
Not a
few stakeholders have said NCS needed to consolidate on the gains it had
recorded in the last two years so that it could be in a position to sustain the
momentum this year and beyond.
However,
there are fears in some quarters that if the Customs boss and his management
team do not sustain the momentum, the gains recorded in the last three years by
NCS in LPC may be eroded in the months ahead. For instance, many port users
have stressed the need to continue to engage importers and licensed customs
agents on the grey areas in the cargo clearance chain.They need to be trained
and retrained so that they can be at par with their counterparts in the
developed world.
They
maintained that the Customs High Command should not relent in its drive to
ensure that its formations across the country are encouraged to do the right
thing and deliver on its mandate.This is vital at this period that the federal
government is looking at the direction of the maritime industry as an
alternative source of getting income to fund the 2015 budget as the price of
crude oil continue to slide downward in the international market. Will NCS live
up to expectations or dash the hope of those who expect it to deliver? Will it
sustain the momentum in Nigeria’s premier port or go back to the old days when
rice was the king in revenue generation? The answers to these and many more
questions lie in the bowels of time.
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/a-shift-from-rice-importation-as-revenue-source/200468/
Amira Nature Foods Ltd Announces Offering of
$225 Million Senior Secured Second Lien Notes and $35 Million Senior Secured
Revolving Credit Facility
Amira Nature Foods Ltd Announces Offering of $225 Million
Senior Secured Second Lien Notes and $35 Million Senior Secured Revolving
Credit Facility
Amira Nature Foods Ltd
(Mauritius), a Mauritius company (‘‘Amira Mauritius’’), and Amira I Grand Foods
Inc. (BVI), a British Virgin Islands company (the ‘‘Co-Issuer’’ and, together
with Amira Mauritius, the ‘‘Issuers’’), are offering $225,000,000 aggregate
principal amount of Senior Secured Second Lien Notes due 2020 (the ‘‘Notes’’).
Amira Mauritius is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amira Nature Foods Ltd (BVI), a
publicly traded BVI business company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and
the Co-Issuer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amira Mauritius. Concurrent with
the closing of the notes, the Company expects to enter into a new $35 million
Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility.
The Company intends to use the
net proceeds from the offering to: support the development of its international
operations, reduce short term debt, purchase land for its new manufacturing
facility, general corporate purposes and to pay related fees and expenses. The
Company expects the Revolving Credit Facility to remain undrawn at the time of
closing of the sale of the Notes.The Notes will be offered to qualified
institutional buyers in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act of
1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and to non-U.S. persons
outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act.
The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state or
other jurisdiction's securities laws. Accordingly, the Notes may not be offered
or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption
from registration requirements under the Securities Act and any applicable
state or other jurisdiction's securities laws.
The consummation of the
proposed senior notes offering is subject to market and other conditions. This
press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an
offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in
any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be
unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of
any such state or jurisdiction.
About Amira Nature Foods
Founded in 1915, Amira has
evolved into a leading global provider of branded packaged Indian specialty rice,
with sales in over 60 countries today. The Company sells Basmati rice, which is
a premium long-grain rice grown only in certain regions of the Indian
sub-continent, under its flagship Amira brand as well as under other third
party brands. Amira sells its products through a broad distribution network in
both the developed and emerging markets. The Company’s global headquarters are
in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and it also has offices in India, Malaysia,
Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Amira Nature
Foods Ltd is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the
ticker symbol “ANFI.” For more information please visit www.amira.net.
Safe Harbor for
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains
statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made under the
“safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases
such as “may,” “will,” “except,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,”
“believe,” “is/are likely to,” “future” or other similar expressions.
We have based these
forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections
about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our
financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial
needs. The forward-looking statements in this release include statements
regarding the offering of the Notes These forward-looking statements include,
but are not limited to: our goals and strategies; our expansion plans; and our
future business development. We would like to caution you not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements and you should read these statements in
conjunction with the risk factors disclosed in “Risk Factors” appearing in our
Annual Report on Form 20-F as well as other public filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.
Those risks are not exhaustive
and reflect our expectations as of the date of this release. We operate in a
rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it
is impossible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess
the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or
combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained
in any forward-looking statement. We do not undertake any obligation to update
or revise the forward-looking statements except as required under applicable
law.
Amira Nature Foods LtdBruce Wacha, 201-960-0745
Chief Financial Officer
bruce.wacha@theamiragroup.com
or
FTI Consulting
Steven Balet, 212-850-5717
AmiraNatureFoods@fticonsulting.com
Source
with thanks: The Reuters
Amira Nature Foods : Announces Offering of $225 Million Senior
Secured Second Lien Notes and $35 Million Senior Secured Revolving Credit
Facility
01/28/2015 | 01:21pm
US/Eastern
Amira Nature Foods Ltd (Mauritius), a Mauritius company
(‘‘Amira Mauritius’’), and Amira I Grand Foods Inc. (BVI), a British Virgin
Islands company (the ‘‘Co-Issuer’’ and, together with Amira Mauritius, the
‘‘Issuers’’), are offering $225,000,000 aggregate principal amount of Senior
Secured Second Lien Notes due 2020 (the ‘‘Notes’’). Amira Mauritius is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Amira Nature Foods Ltd (BVI), a publicly traded BVI
business company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the Co-Issuer is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Amira Mauritius. Concurrent with the closing of the
notes, the Company expects to enter into a new $35 million Senior Secured
Revolving Credit Facility.
The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the
offering to: support the development of its international operations, reduce
short term debt, purchase land for its new manufacturing facility, general
corporate purposes and to pay related fees and expenses. The Company expects
the Revolving Credit Facility to remain undrawn at the time of closing of the
sale of the Notes.
The Notes will be offered to qualified institutional buyers
in accordance with Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the
"Securities Act"), and to non-U.S. persons outside the United States
pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes have not been
registered under the Securities Act or any state or other jurisdiction's
securities laws. Accordingly, the Notes may not be offered or sold in the
United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration
requirements under the Securities Act and any applicable state or other
jurisdiction's securities laws.
The consummation of the proposed senior notes offering is
subject to market and other conditions. This press release does not constitute
an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor
shall there be any sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which
such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or
qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About Amira Nature Foods
Founded in 1915, Amira has evolved into a leading global
provider of branded packaged Indian specialty rice, with sales in over 60
countries today. The Company sells Basmati rice, which is a premium long-grain
rice grown only in certain regions of the Indian sub-continent, under its
flagship Amira brand as well as under other third party brands. Amira sells its
products through a broad distribution network in both the developed and
emerging markets. The Company’s global headquarters are in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, and it also has offices in India, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, the
United Kingdom, and the United States. Amira Nature Foods Ltd is listed on the
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “ANFI.” For more
information please visit www.amira.net.
Safe Harbor for
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements of a forward-looking
nature. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the
U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these
forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “except,”
“anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “is/are likely
to,” “future” or other similar expressions.
We have based these forward-looking statements largely on
our current expectations and projections about future events and financial
trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of
operations, business strategy and financial needs. The forward-looking
statements in this release include statements regarding the offering of the
Notes These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: our
goals and strategies; our expansion plans; and our future business development.
We would like to caution you not to place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements and you should read these statements in conjunction
with the risk factors disclosed in “Risk Factors” appearing in our Annual
Report on Form 20-F as well as other public filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Those risks are not exhaustive and reflect our
expectations as of the date of this release. We operate in a rapidly evolving
environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible
for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of
all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination
of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any
forward-looking statement. We do not undertake any obligation to update or
revise the forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law.
Source with thanks: 4-traders.com
2015 Rice Farmer of the Year is Ray Stoesser
Posted: Thursday,
January 29, 2015 8:32 am
2015
Rice Farmer of the Year is Ray Stoesser By Carol Skewes, Publisher, publisher@thevindicator.com
Ray Stoesser
was recently named the 2015 Rice Farmer of the Year.The 18th annual convention
for the National Conservation Systems Cotton & Rice Conference, Southern
Corn & Soybean Conference and Southern Precision Ag Conference is held each
January and Stoesser is always there. This year’s convention was held in Baton
Rouge, La. He said, “It was a shock to me. I didn’t know anything about it
until I got there.”Stoesser has been rice farming in Dayton been since 1966, as
his father and grandfather did before him.Stoesser explained, “My father farmed
in the 1930’s. We have seen lots of changes.
My dad was born in Dayton and I was
too. My grandfather settled in Dayton in the early part of the century. He died
in 1925 when my dad was 15.”Stoesser plants two crops of rice per year as long
as he can harvest early enough. He commented, “Right now rice farming is
kind of down. Because of the oversupply of rice the prices have gone down
25%. Arkansas planted 500,000 additional acres to offset the drop in
price.”Stoesser employs about a dozen people and has his own drying facility.He
has served on the Texas Rice Research Foundation Board, the Texas Rice
Producers Board and is the current President of the Texas Rice Council.
Stoesser identified a sugarcane
aphid, not previously seen in Texas, that attacks sorghum plants, and in doing
so saved many rice farmers a lot of trouble.Stoesser said receiving the Rice
Farmer of the Year is quite an honor. He said, “I don’t particularly like
to brag on myself. The Lord does most of my work and makes the rice grow. I
just manage His efforts.”“I couldn’t be recognized without mentioning my two
sons, Neal, 39, and Grant, 29, as well as my good crew that works for me. They
have been with me a long time.Stoesser earned his Bachelor Degree from Baylor
University. He is a Deacon of First Baptist Church in Dayton.
www.thevindicator.com/.../article_ae8d8524-a7c3-11e4-b74d-173c3eb587
Air Pollution Hits Crops More
Than Climate Change
Black
carbon and ozone may have caused India more than US$5 billion in losses to
wheat and rice crops.
AsianScientist
(Jan. 30, 2015) - By Sandhya Sekar - Atmospheric pollutants
may impact India’s major crops like wheat and rice more than temperature rise, says
a new study based on a ‘regression model’ that predicts future events with
information on past or present events.
The study by Jennifer Burney and V.
Ramanathan, scientists at the University of California, project that a one
degree centigrade rise in temperature could lead to a crop decline of four
percent for wheat and five percent for rice. But losses from pollution could be
greater. “For context, the yield loss for wheat attributable to pollutants
alone in 2010 corresponds to over 24 million tons of wheat: around four times
India’s wheat imports before the 2007—2008 food price crisis and a value
greater than $5 billion,” the authors write in a paper on the study published
November in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Most
pollutants impact temperature by absorbing incoming radiation from the sun and
reflected heat from the earth. Black carbon aerosols and ozone are of special
concern as they affect crops directly—black carbon changes the amount of
radiation reaching the surface while ozone is toxic to plants. In 2010, wheat
yields were 36 percent lower and the models show that 90 percent of that change
was due to the pollutants. The impact was most drastic in the state of
Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. Wheat yields in Uttar Pradesh were 50 percent
lower than they would have been without the current climate and pollutant
trends with two-thirds of the decrease attributable to pollutant levels. In the
case of rice, 15 percent of yield decrease in the Gangetic plains could be
attributed to pollutants.
The
Gangetic plains seem to accumulate surface level ozone and aerosols before the
monsoons. “Previous studies have shown that wheat is more sensitive to ozone
than rice,” Burney tells SciDev.Net. “Also, the dry season
has more pollutants.” “I am pretty sure, based on other evidence, that yield
declines due to pollution and warming are real, but I think that they are
unlikely to be as large as the headline results in this paper,” says E
Somanathan, professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. “Whether
we believe the estimates of yield losses depends on whether we believe the
regression model. Here, I am sceptical.”The authors acknowledge limitations in
the study, but insist that ozone and black carbon have had “significant impact
on crop yields in India in recent decades”.
The
article can be found at: Burney and Ramanathan (2014)
Recent Climate and Air Pollution Impacts on Indian Agriculture.
http://www.asianscientist.com/2015/01/features/air-pollution-hits-crops-climate-change/
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