Imports up for neighbours as rice
consumption increases
Published:
Saturday May 2, 2015 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday May 2, 2015 MYT 8:10:01 AM
PEOPLE
in Singapore are eating more rice, and grains from Malaysia, Cambodia and
Pakistan are seeing a huge growth in demand.Latest figures from Interprise
Enterprise Singapore – the government agency driving the republic’s external
economy – show that 361,930 tonnes of rice were imported in 2011, rising
steadily to hit 498,633 tonnes last year, or a rise of 38%.Importers point to
growing awareness of healthy eating as the main reason for the increase.“It’s
healthier to eat rice ... or rice noodles like mee hoon than, say, fast food,”
said Lim Ek Kwong, operations manager of major rice importer See Hoy Chan.
The
recent influx of foreigners from rice-eating nations such as India and China
may also have fuelled the demand, said importers. There are also more types of
rice available now.The past few years had seen a change in the main supply
source.In 2013, India, for the first time, overtook Thailand – famous for its
premium grade jasmine rice – as the biggest rice supplier to Singapore. Last
year, 37.4% of the total rice imports came from India, and 32.3% were from
Thailand. Vietnam (22.6%) took the No. 3 spot.Other countries that supply rice
to Singapore included Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Pakistan.
While
they accounted for less than 5% of the total rice imports last year, three of
them saw huge growth increases.Demand for rice from Malaysia and Cambodia jumped
11 times and nine times, respectively, while demand for Pakistani rice
tripled.Rice importers said the quality of non-Thai rice has improved over the
years.
They
“have improved their polishing and dehusking technology”, said Lim.Prices also
play a part. At FairPrice supermarkets, for instance, a 10kg bag of housebrand
jasmine fragrant rice from Vietnam costs S$15.50 (RM41.80) while a similar bag
of housebrand Thai fragrant rice and white rice blend costs S$18.60 (RM50.17).
About 70% of rice sold at FairPrice is from Thailand, down from 95% in 2007.Lim
said restaurants have turned to white rice from Vietnam, Cambodia and India as
they cost less than the Thai variety.
Andrew
Tan, chairman of the Singapore General Rice Importers Association, said the shift
to non-Thai rice began in 2011. That year, the Thai government started buying
rice from farmers at above-market rates, building a stockpile at home. This
reduced the amount of rice available for export and led to higher prices.People
are also eating more rice because there are now more varieties available.
Mui-Kok Kah Wei, FairPrice’s senior director of purchasing and merchandising,
said the supermarket chain’s range now includes varieties like calrose, red
unpolished rice and multi-grain rice.Basmati and ponni rice are also gaining
popularity.
Telemarketer
Amutha Chetty, 44, said her family eats only ponni rice from India. “We used to
eat some Thai rice but we don’t anymore. (It is) more expensive.”But teacher
Sarah Lim, 53, is sticking to her Thai rice. “It is so ingrained in me that
Thai rice is better ... I won’t change to rice from elsewhere even if it is
cheaper,” she said. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network
Vietnam rice boom puts pressure
on farmers
Rice farmer Nguyen Hien Thien is so busy growing his crops that he
has never even visited Can Tho, a town only a few kilometres from his farm in
the southern Mekong Delta."When I was a child, we grew one crop of rice
per year -- now it's three. It's a lot of work," 60-year-old Thien, who's
been farming since childhood, told AFP.Experts say Vietnam's drive to become
one of the world's leading rice exporters is pushing farmers in the fertile
delta region to the brink, with mounting costs to the environment.
The communist country is already the world's second largest
exporter of the staple grain. But intensive rice cultivation, particularly the
shift to producing three crops a year, is taking its toll on farmers and the
ecosystem."Politicians want to be the world's number one or two rice
exporter. As a scientist, I want to see more being done to protect farmers and
the environment," said Vietnamese rice expert Vo Tong Xuan.A major famine
in 1945 and food shortages in the post-war years led to the government adopting
a "rice first" policy.This now generates far more of the crop than
needed to feed Vietnam's 90 million population and has spawned a thriving
export industry.Rice yields have nearly quadrupled since the 1970s, official
figures show, thanks to high-yield strains and the construction of a network of
dykes that today allow farmers to grow up to three crops per year.
The amount of land under cultivation in the Mekong Delta has also
expanded and quotas are in place to prevent farmers from switching to other
crops.But experts question who really benefits.According to Xuan, farmers don't
reap the rewards of the three crop system -- the rice is low quality and they
spend more on pesticides and fertilisers, which become less effective year by
year.He argues the delta would be better off if farmers cultivated a more
diverse range of crops, from coconuts to prawns, with just the most suitable
land used to grow rice.The country should consider abandoning the third crop
and focus on improving quality and branding to sell Vietnamese rice at higher
prices, he said.
Currently, the bulk of Vietnam's rice is exported at cut-price
costs on government-to-government contracts through large state-owned
enterprises (SOEs) like the Southern Food Corporation, known as Vinafood
2."Over the last five years, the trend is towards lower-quality
rice," admitted Le Huu Trang, deputy office manager at the firm.Some argue
that such SOEs have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo as they
earn lucrative kickbacks from the huge contracts.But even as salt water
intrusion, drought and flooding increase in the delta -- to say nothing of
agricultural chemical pollution -- it is also hard to convince farmers to
change."The prevailing mindset is to grow three crops... we have to
explain two crops is better," said Nguyen Tuan Hiep from the Co Do
Agriculture company.
Over the last 20 years, Co Do -- which is state-run but a flagship
model of how the industry could evolve -- has identified the best rice-growing
land in the delta and helped farmers expand their farms.They now work with
2,500 families on 5,900 hectares of land, enough for each family to make a living
-- typically the average rice farm in the delta spans less than one hectare.
The firm invests heavily in high-quality seeds and improving
irrigation, while also advising farmers on the best chemicals to use."Two
crops is more sustainable long term -- the soil is not degraded, the
environment isn't polluted, and value of the rice increases," Hiep
said.Climate change is another factor threatening the delta, according to the
World Bank Group's vice president and special envoy for climate change Rachel
Kyte."This is really ground zero for some of the most difficult
adaptation, planning challenges that any country in the world has," she
said.
Ultimately, Vietnam has tough choices to make, including whether
to help people transition from a rice-based economy to aquaculture or other
crops, Kyte added.The environmental costs of maintaining Vietnam's current
level of rice production are also rising.The system of dykes, which blocks
flood water, is preventing soil nutrients from flowing freely and over time "soil
fertility will fade", said Tran Ngoc Thac, deputy director of Vietnam's
Rice Research Institute.Scientists there are busy trying to breed new strains
of rice that require fewer fertilisers and can survive in extreme weather."If farmers don't change, if we can't find a
suitable new rice strain, pollution will continue and incomes will drop,"
Thac said, adding these measures were essential to save the delta.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/vietnam-rice-boom-puts-pressure-030106442.html
PARC introduces 11 new high-yielding rice varieties
INP
The Pakistan Agriculture Research
Council (PARC) approved 11 new high-yielding rice varieties including seven
hybrid and four open-pollinated seed for cultivation in various ecologies.The
Variety Evaluation Committee (VEC) on Rice was held here at PARC headquarters
under the Chairmanship of Member Plant Sciences Division Dr Muhammad Shahid
Masood.In total, 19 rice varieties were presented before the VEC including 14
hybrid and five OP varieties, out of which 11 were approved and eight were
rejected due to Bacterial-Leaf-Blight (BLB) disease susceptibility and poor
grain quality performance. The approved varieties have been recommended to the
National Seed Council.
Details show that the hybrid
varieties approved by the VEC have yield potential up to 92 mound per acre
whereas the OP rice varieties have potential to produce much yield than the
existing IRRI-6 and KSK-133 varieties.The OP varieties have been developed from
the Green Super Rice (GSR) germ-plasm provided by the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines to PARC and National Institute for
Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE). These OP varieties have high
yield potential and also submergence, salinity and water stress tolerance characters.
“With the addition of new recommended hybrids of rice in the
national system of the country, it is expected that there will be a significant
improvement in rice production in Pakistan,” VET Chairman Dr M Shahid Masood
said.He appreciated the role of stakeholders for taking interest in rice
research and development and working in close collaboration with the public
sector.
The VEC meeting, among others,
was attended by 20 technical members of the committee from National Agriculture
Research System (NARS) of the country including rice breeders, agronomists,
entomologists, pathologists, seed experts, policy-makers, private seed
companies’ representatives and provincial seed cooperation representatives.It
is pertinent to mention here that the VEC on wheat recently released four new
rust resistant wheat varieties including a bio-fortified variety having 50
percent Zinc (Zn) contents.
The bio-fortified variety is the
first-ever such introduction in the list of recommended varieties for farmers’
choice in any agro-ecology.Meanwhile, Chairman PARC Dr Iftikhar Ahmad lauded
the efforts of the scientists and other stakeholders for introducing new rice
varieties.“I expect that the introduction of new rice varieties would not only
produce promising crop yield but would also help farmers to raise their incomes
to improve their livelihood and ultimately play role in building of overall
economy of the country,” he remarked.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2015/05/03/business/parc-introduces-11-new-high-yielding-rice-varieties/
PARC approves 11 new
high-yielding rice varieties for cultivation
The
approved varieties include seven hybrid and four open-pollinated seed.
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) has approved eleven
new high-yielding rice varieties for cultivation in various ecologies.The
approval was made at the meeting of Variety Evaluation Committee on Rice held
in Islamabad under the Chairmanship of Member Plant Sciences Division, Dr
Muhammad Shahid Masood.
The approved varieties include seven hybrid and four
open-pollinated seed.In total, nineteen rice varieties were presented before
the Committee out of which 11 were approved and eight rejected due to
Bacterial-Leaf-Blight disease susceptibility and poor grain quality
performance. The approved varieties have been
recommended to National Seed Council.Details show the hybrid varieties approved
by the Committee have yield potential up to 92 mounds per acre whereas the
Open-Pollinated rice varieties have potential to produce much yield than the
existing IRRI-6 and KSK-133 varieties.
News by Union of Small and Medium
Enterprises (UNISAME)
The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has invited
the attention of federal commerce minister Khurram Dastagir to the closure of
rice processing units and urged him to save the traditional export oriented
industry from collapse by doing some out of box thinking and implementing the
decision before the planting season of all varieties of rice.President UNISAME
Zulfikar Thaver said rice exports business is only in the hands of a few big
rice exporters and the SME unit owners have been eliminated. More than 1000
units have closed down due to lack of business. The lethargy of the government
is damaging the age old industry which is next to textiles and employs a large
number of people.
He
said in Sindh the parboiling units have proved to be dead investment and the
par boilers of paddy are now sitting hand on hand.Although Thaver identified
the crisis to a worldwide low cycle of commodities and said our main competitor
India excels in parboil rice and offers it at lower than our price but in white
rice Pakistan is competing India due to lower prices and better quality.
However we cannot afford to close our parboil units and need to revive the
parboil rice industry especially in Sindh.
He
said despite the fact that Pakistani rice is more tasty and inherits
superiority we are unable to take benefit due to no support from government for
farm inputs.The SME rice exporters have urged the government to examine the
setback and study each and every aspect from irrigation methods, fertilizers,
seeds, supply chain, cost of cultivation, pesticides and storage and last but
not the least logistics.The SME rice exporters demanded level playing field and
lamented that the Quality Review Committee (QRC) is not closed yet despite the
fact that its futility is confirmed it is a bothersome pre- shipment inspection
cell and a mockery of international pre shipment inspection and it is surprising
as to why the Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) is tolerating
it and why the MINCOM realizing its demerits is giving it extension. MINCOM
even directed the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) to begin the
process of closing it but the SMEs fail to understand why it has not been
closed and what is the reason for the slackness and who is interested in its
continuity.
This
defective preshipment inspection cell( QRC) not equipped nor qualified nor
eligible was basically formed to protect the basmati rice purity but now the
rice business is mostly of 386, 1121 and its blending with basmati and the
purity is not expected nor practiced. In fact blending is now treated as a
skill and 1121 is more expensive than basmati.UNISAME
expects the MINCOM to address the issues of the rice industry and urged it to
seek help from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA)
to revive the industry on modern lines with paddy drying systems, storage
systems and to make value addition by making rice milk and other high value
products from rice both for exports and the domestic market
Posted
Date: 3rd May, 2015 Last updated at 18:25 PST
Folate biofortified rice could
reduce birth defects: study
Rice could soon be genetically
modified to add folic acid to our diets. (CHAIWATPHOTOS / Shutterstock.com)
Published
Saturday, May 2, 2015 10:15AM EDT
Bolstering rice with a gene to produce more folate -- or vitamin
B9 -- could ward off birth defects, according to a new study.An estimated 50 to
70 per cent of all neural tube defects occur due to maternal folate deficiency,
according to the Belgian research team.The researchers suggest their folate biofortified
rice (FBR) would be consumed in regions that lack the vitamin such as
Balrampur, India and Shanxi, China. In a paper on the product, the research
team used the standard metric of the World Health Organization called the
Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY).According to them, the DALY reflects the
sum of Years of Life Lost (YLL), a measure of premature mortality, in addition
to the Years Lost due to Disability (YLD), which accounts for both morbidity
and mortality for those with health problems.
By the team's count, folate biofortification could eliminate
between 29 and 111 DALYs per year in Balrampur per 1,000 births and between 47
and 104 DALYs in Shanxi.In China and India, between 16,000 and 18,000 babies
are born per year with neural tube defects, say the researchers, whose study
was
published in the International Journal of Biotechnology.This accounts for 12
per cent of the global estimated number of 300,000 babies born with neural tube
defects per year.The idea of fortifying food with folic acid isn't new. Yet
around the world, women are not taking enough folic acid and one
study says that two-thirds of U.K. women bypass recommended
pre-pregnancy doses.According to the paper, 1,000 pregnancies affected by spina
bifida occur in the U.K. per year.The Center for Disease Control in the U.S.
recommends that all women of childbearing age consume 0.4 mg (400 micrograms)
of folic acid daily
$2 million will
benefit ultra-modern Foundation Seed Facility
The Arkansas Rice Research and
Promotion Board has directed $2 million to help construct an innovative Seed
Foundation Facility at the state’s Rice Research and Extension Center in
Stuttgart. The facility will assist scientists and researchers to bring new
higher yielding, high quality rice varieties to market so Arkansas farmers can
profitably grow rice that meets worldwide demand.
Posted: Saturday, May 2, 2015 8:00 am
By Mark Scott Arkansas Extension Service
LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Rice
Research and Promotion Board has directed $2 million to help construct an
innovative Seed Foundation Facility at the state’s Rice Research and Extension
Center in Stuttgart. The facility will assist scientists and researchers to
bring new higher yielding, high quality rice varieties to market so Arkansas
farmers can profitably grow rice that meets worldwide demand.
http://newtoncountytimes.com/news/million-will-benefit-ultra-modern-foundation-seed-facility/article_1a7f0898-ef40-11e4-b733-1f7e7e6118ef.html
FBR : Fifth mini-budget in five
months, higher taxes imposed on oil
05/01/2015 | 12:29am US/Eastern
In an
unprecedented move, the federal government in its desperation to generate tax
revenues on Thursday introduced a fifth mini-budget in as many months and
imposed additional ad hoc taxes on petroleum products, which would have the
combined effect of raising prices by as much as 4.5% on such items.Through the
new measures, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet raised
the general sales tax on high speed diesel (HSD) from 32% to 34%. Sales tax on
petrol, kerosene, light diesel oil (LDO) and high-octane blended component
(HOBC) increased from 18% to 20%, said one official at the Federal Board of
Revenue.
In addition, the government approved a 2%
'regulatory duty' on crude oil, petrol, and furnace oil. It also approved a
2.5% regulatory duty on HSD. These duties are in addition to the 5% it already
imposed on furnace oil to recoup revenue losses from lower global oil
prices.The move appears to be motivated by the government's upcoming
negotiations with the International
Monetary Fund for the release of
the next loan tranche of over $500
million which are due to start on
Friday (today).
The government
has historically relied on the energy sector for over 25% of its total
revenues. With global oil prices dropping, the finance ministry claims it needs
to raise rates to keep its revenues steady. However, some analysts believe that
the government has levied more in additional taxes than it would have lost had
tax rates remained constant.The net effect of the four mini-budgets prior to
Thursday's move is close to Rs101
billion in additional revenues
for the government, while Finance Minister Ishaq
Dar has acknowledged that the net
effect of lower oil prices on tax revenues was only Rs68 billion.
Sources in FBR told The Express Tribune that the tax machinery was crumbling
due to increasingly unchecked corruption a reason that the government does not
admit to publicly. Iftikhar
Vohra, the president of the Karachi
Chamber of Commerce and Industry said
last week that theFBR was
settling tax notices in exchange for Rs50,000 to Rs300,000 in bribes. The FBR did
not deny the allegations.
The FBR insists
that the increase in GST rates and regulatory duties would generate only Rs10 billion revenues in the remaining two months
of the fiscal year. However, the tax body has in the past used misleading
information even when testifying before Parliament on the matter of
mini-budgets.Dar had told Parliament that four mini budgets would generate only Rs48 billion in additional taxes. However, in a
report to the IMF the government said that these additional measures would
generate revenues equal to 0.35% of Gross Domestic Product or Rs101 billion.The move would further
deny the benefits of falling global oil to domestic consumers. There will also
be an increase in the cost of electricity generation.
In the earlier
mini budgets, the government increased the standard 17% GST rate on petroleum
products, levied regulatory duties on steel products and scrap metal,
introduced a regulatory duty on mobile phone, levied an additional 5%
regulatory duty on furnace oil, increased the withholding tax on non-filer
contractors, service providers, and importers. It also increased import duty on
luxury items.
Ramazan Package
The ECC also
approved Rs1.5 billion Ramazan package as compared to the Rs1.4 billion approved last year. The Finance
Division would provide upfront payment of Rs1
billion to the Utility Stores Corporation to buy the items before Ramazan. These
include flour, sugar, ghee, oil, pulses including dal channa, dal moong, dal mash,
dal masoor, white gram, baisen, dates, basmati rice, sela rice, broken rice,
squashes and syrups (900 ml bottle), black tea, milk, and spices.
PIA fleet payments
The ECC approved the release of the remaining $36 million for the induction of 15 aircraft on a
dry lease in the fleet of the state-ownedPakistan International Airlines. In
its December 6, 2014 meeting, the ECC had approved in
principle, an amount of $52
million and provided the first
tranche of $16.4 million for these aircraft. The PIA has arranged
to acquire ten A-320 and five ATR-72 aircraft on dry lease.
Published in The
Express Tribune, May 1st, 2015.
The post Fifth mini-budget in five months,
higher taxes imposed on oil appeared first on The
Express Tribune.
Rural stress
affects farmers even in prosperous states
Greater adoption of cash crops combined with a collapse in the
prices of agri-commodities has led farmers to the brink in major agricultural
areas
May 2, 2015 Last Updated at 22:50 IST
According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, nearly
64 per cent of all farmer suicides in the country in 2013 took place in the
four states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, raising the
question: why is rural stress resulting in farmer suicides in these relatively
prosperous states?
NCRB started collecting profession-wise suicide data in 1995.
Under the category of self-employed (farming/agriculture), the bureau reported
10,462 suicides in 2013. Maharashtra tops the list, accounting for about a
third of these, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.Not all suicides take
place because of economic stress. However, relatively higher incidence of
suicide among farmers compared to non-farmers in most of the years for which
data are available does indicate livelihood concerns associated with
agricultural economy, say experts.Greater adoption of cash crops in these
relatively prosperous regions could be one of the reasons for acute rural
stress in such states.
"The pricing of agricultural commodities has been the biggest
source of worry. My experience with the cotton growers is that they are forced
to sell their produce below the cost of produce," says Sharad Nimbalkar,
noted agriculture expert and former vice-chancellor of Akola-based Panjabrao
Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth in Maharashtra.Take the case of cotton, which has
been a source of anxiety for farmers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (now
bifurcated into the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). Nimbalkar says
that the cost of production for every acre of cotton is Rs 14,000-15,000. But
at current market price, a farmer can expect at best a price of Rs
12,000-13,000 per acre, he adds.
What has worsened the situation is the volatility in prices of
some agri-commodities. According to the Cotton Corporation of India data, the
average annual price of J-34 variety spiked from Rs 3,115 a quintal to Rs 5,571
the following year and collapsed subsequently. In fact, in the past year
itself, wholesale prices of cotton have fallen by 11 per cent in Maharashtra
and nearly 13 per cent in Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, the number of farmers
killing themselves declined during 2006-2010 but increased subsequently in
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, thus indicating a direct correlation between
the price of cotton and incidence of farmer suicide.
The price of other cash crops like soyabean, rubber and
basmati rice too has seen big fluctuation in recent years. "A combination
of factors has exacerbated rural distress in recent years," argues Ajay
Jakhar, chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj. "The collapse in the prices of
agri-commodities is definitely one. Unseasonal rain has added to the
hopelessness. What is needed is timely compensation to farmers."The extent
of rural distress in recent years can also be understood in terms of
differences in the rates of suicide of farmers and non-farmers. A 2014 study by
Srijit Mishra of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR)
shows that between 1998 and 2010, suicide death per 100,000 people among male
farmers was always higher than among male non-farmers at the all-India level.
The situation was particularly bad from 2001 to 2006,
after which the two rates began to converge.However, it has been a different
scenario in the case of prosperous states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh
and Kerala. The rate of suicide of male farmers in relation to that of male
non-farmers has been at an elevated level throughout. About Kerala, the report
says: "What is intriguing it that the difference between farmers and
non-farmers suicide rates in Kerala is among the highest across states and the
suicide rate for male farmers is 3.1 to 6.5 times greater than the suicide rate
for male non-farmers.
" On Maharashtra, the IGIDR study observes:
"With not much fluctuation in the suicide rate for non-farmers, it implies
that the suicide rate for farmers has increased till 2006 and then again from
2010."Experts point out that another factor behind rural distress has been
the rise in input cost of farming. "My own experience is that input cost
increases 15-25 per cent every year. It is mostly on the higher side in the
case of cash crops," says Amol Totey, executive president of Orange
Growers' Association. "In this scenario, if the price of produce drops for
2-3 years, it pushes farmers into a debt trap." He adds, "With banks
showing unwillingness to restructure loans, farmers are pushed to the brink.
"However, if one looks at the cost of labour, one
of the key inputs for farming, data suggest a negative correlation between the
rates of farmer suicide and growth in real rural wages. According to government
estimates, "Nominal farm wages grew at only 1.8 per cent per annum from
2001-02 to 2006-07 and at a high 17.5 per cent per annum during 2007-08 to
2011-12." While the first period with minimum wage growth was characterised
by acute rural distress manifested in higher rates of farmer suic
ide, the latter period was relatively better.With a
fall in average size of landholding and consequent fall in the number of
cultivators, it is likely that many farmers double up as agriculture labour for
additional income. And a dip in rural wage growth in the last few years may
have added to the woes of such small and marginal farmers.
ISLAMABAD:
The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) on Thursday set the fresh production
targets for sugarcane and rice crops.The target for sugarcane was fixed at 68
million tonnes from an area of 1.40m hectares as compared to last year’s
production of 63.9m tonnes.The target for rice is 7m tonnes from an area of
2.8m hectares, whereas for the maize crop, the target is 4.6m tonnes.
The representatives of provincial agricultural
departments urged the federal government to ensure adequate supply of urea and
phosphate fertilisers during the season.Speaking at a news conference after the
FCA meeting, Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat
Khan Bosan stated that production of main crops, including rice, cotton,
sugarcane and potatoes had increased. It had helped the government stabilise
prices of essential commodities. He was of the view that farmers took a hit due
to falling global prices of rice and cotton.
As far as irrigation water is concerned, the
meeting was informed that availability of water would be satisfactory except
for some areas of Sindh.The Met Office reported the IRSA data that water levels
in the reservoirs were better as compared to last year. Additionally, the Met
Office was optimistic about prospects of rains in all parts of the country.
The committee was informed that the availability
of certified seeds had increased during the Kharif sowing season. The
representative of State Bank informed the meeting that allocation of
institutional credit for agriculture has substantially increased. Wheat
production has been estimated at 25.03m tonnes from an area of 9.17m hectares.
The revised estimates have reduced the production target from 25.48m tonnes in
view of slight damage to wheat crop owing to freak weather conditions.The
current production of gram crops has been estimated at 4.2m tonnes. The
committee also reviewed production achievements of other crops, such as maize,
chillies and pulses.
Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015
Rice Importers Take on Customs
over N20bn Import Duty Payment
04 May 2015
Rice importers have taken on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) over its resolve
to collect the N20 billion import duty they allegedly evaded paying into the
coffers of the federal government.Following the reluctance of the rice
importers to pay the import duty, the Customs High Command had issued a public
notice in selected national newspapers giving the importers or their agents an
ultimatum to pay on or before April 14, 2015.Apparently seeing the ultimatum as
an empty threat, the rice importers treated the public notice with levity.Two
weeks after the expiration of the ultimatum as contained in the public notice,
the importers did not pay the import duty and they were not arrested by NCS or
any other security agency.
THISDAY checks revealed that the importers
resolve to ignore the ultimatum to pay the import duty, even as they dared NCS
based on superior advice from those backing them.Impeccable sources close to
the importers and their agents said they took the decision to ignore the public
notice due to the fact that the Customs High Command presently lacked what it
takes to sanction them.“As far as rice importers are concerned, they regard NCS
as a toothless bull dog. This is because most of them know their way in the
system from the presidency to the Federal Ministry of Finance, Ministry of
Trade and Investments, and Agriculture. In fact, as we speak, they are pushing
for the procurement of a waiver. Once they get the waiver, it will make
nonsense of the N20 billion import duty NCS has been demanding from them all
these while,” the source said.
According to the source who preferred anonymity,
the rice importers are adopting a multi-layered approach to ensure that they
obtain the waiver. They strongly believe the Ministry of Agriculture lacked the
statutory powers to grant such waivers. That is why they are not restricting
their pursuit of the waiver to that ministry alone. Besides, the importers are
banking on the fact of the imminent change in government, as they strongly
believe that the out-going administration of President Goodluck Jonathan may
not be keen in pursuing them to recover the money.
It was gathered that while some of the rice
importers may be willing to pay the N20 billion import duty, they want to buy
time with the belief that the in-coming government of Muhammadu Buhari (rtd)
give them opportunity to re-negotiate the amount and the payment terms after it
takes the reins of power on May 29, 2015.“We are still working at raising the
money. We have invested heavily and the commodity is not even selling as much
as we had expected. So, what is the rush, in paying the excess duty? Look, we
will pay. But I do not envisage my company paying everything. Is this not
Nigeria?” one of the affected importers said.
While no one was willing to speak publicly on the
matter, a senior official of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Abuja
confirmed that some rice importers were granted waivers not long ago just as
some others are still being processed.One of those granted waiver by the
ministry is a seasoned rice grower and importer, Olam Nigeria Limited.
According to documents obtained by THISDAY,
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, in the waiver dated April 13,
2015, said he was glad that domestic rice production was already on the
increase, thereby resulting in a reduction of rice import requirements of
the country. Given, Olam Nigeria’s massive rice production and milling
investment in Nigeria, being the largest single existing investor in the
sub-sector over the last two years with existing investments over $120,000,000,
the ministry is willing to reduce the amount owed by 50 per cent to 54,000 MT
to be applied to 2015 allocations.
In response to inquiries, Public Relations
Officer (PRO), NCS Headquarters, Abuja, Alhaji Adewale Adeniyi, said the
position of NCS on import duty collection had not changed.Adewale, a Deputy
Comptroller (DC), maintained that NCS would not fail to apply severe sanctions
if the importers failed to pay the statutory fees.According to him, “We are
committed to a total recovery of the duty payable on excess importation of
rice. We have the government backing on this. The President (Jonathan) has
given us the mandate to recover fully, the duty on excess importation on rice
and management has no reason whatsoever to shirk its responsibility in this
regard. It is revenue that is due, from any excess importation; and we have
President Jonathan’s backing to make this recovery.So, despite their foot
dragging, they cannot escape paying it. I can assure on that.”
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