LOCAL RICE: “WE ARE UNDER PRESSURE TO DELIVER ON DEMAND”

The demand for Nigerian grown rice has risen in Calabar as residents patronise it more due to high cost of foreign rice. Investigation by the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Calabar shows that residents of the state prefer the rice for this year’s yuletide.

A resident, Mr Richard Nku, said he preferred the Nigerian grown and processed rice to foreign one for various reasons. “It is cheaper, more affordable and even sweeter than foreign rice. So I cannot spend as much as N26,000 just to buy just a bag of rice simply because it is foreign.

“In this Christmas, I am going for locally made rice and that is what my family and everybody in my house will eat until January,’’ he said. Another resident, Mr Raymond Ubi, also described local rice as a credible alternative to the current rising price of foreign rice.

“I go for our own made rice, no matter what people think about it, I prefer it, in fact I like it more than the so called foreign rice,’’ he said. A rice farmer, Mr Fidel Egoro, said that there was serious pressure on his company to supply rice.

“We are under serious pressure to deliver on demand and that is why we cannot accept people paying us through banks.