Ghana’s rice future depends on meeting consumer taste

Ghana will not end rice imports with slogans, patriotism, or sudden bans, but by ensuring local rice production matches the high quality that consumers want to eat, Mr Kofi Akuamoah Boateng Baidoo, the Executive Director, Ghana Rice Federation, has said.

He noted that while increasing production was ideal, ensuring production of high-quality rice for consumers would lead to demand becoming a cycle that increased production and benefiting producers, consumers and the government.

“Ending rice importation in Ghana will not happen through slogans, patriotism, or abrupt import bans. It will happen when Ghanaian rice consistently meets the expectations of major consumers of rice,” Mr Baidoo told the Ghana News Agency in an interview.

He, therefore, called for aligning production with consumer preference while intelligently using import revenues to finance domestic expansion, enabling the country to build a competitive rice industry in the shortest time possible.

“The solution can never be emotional protectionism. The solution is strategic transformation through ruthless and consistent execution,” he said, urging the right legal and moral authority of government, and commitment of technical institutions.

He explained that Ghanaians were willing to pay for more if quality local rice was produced, citing 5kg bag of Thai rice on the Ghanaian market selling between GH¢140 and GH¢180, while 4.5kg sold for GH¢75 and GH¢130.

“This proves something important: Ghanaians are willing and able to pay premium prices for rice that meets their preferences. This is good news for the local rice industry,” Mr Baidoo said.

He proposed financing a small group of smallholder farmers to produce high quality rice, in addition to acquiring large areas of land and subleasing them to commercial rice farmers.

He also called for the establishment of an apolitical Rice Board to coordinate policy implementation and distribution of inputs, mechanised equipment, and incentives for both local and foreign financiers to invest in the local rice industry.

Mr Baidoo said it was important for the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Irrigation Development Authority and Farmer based organisations like the Ghana Rice Federation to work collaboratively to match production to consumers’ taste.

He identified four “magic activities” that could shore up demand and investment in the domestic rice sector – rice, when cooked, should separate into individual grains, aromatic, free from impurities and with consistent quality every time.

“When the value chain practices and interventions ensure these issues are dealt with, it will lead to a demand for local rice and make it competitive to imported rice,” he said.

Source: GNA