Some rice dealers have expressed worry over difficulty in accessing locally produced rice in large quantities.
According to the retail traders, producers of these local rice species do not have warehouses in big cities where traders could easily go and acquire the staple in bulk for the market.
Reacting to the ‘Buy Ghana Rice’ campaign, the traders decried that unlike the imported rice species which can easily be acquired at warehouses littered across Accra and other cities in the country, warehouses for these local rice species are simply ‘non-existent’.
“I have been selling rice products for 15 years, but I have never sold the local rice. I only get access to local rice for personal consumption when I travel to Kumasi. It is very uncommon in Accra,” one trader told Ghanaweb.
Another trader added, “It is not easy to get local rice to buy in large stocks. You will simply not get it. The closest I can get to buy local rice in large quantities is to buy an ‘olonka’ at Nima”.
Sampled views of traders revealed that the low demand for local rice is not necessarily because patrons have developed a taste for imported perfumed rice, but because of the difficulty in accessing wholesale outlets for local rice.
“I do not sell local rice because it is very low on demand. I would have loved to sell it. Only one person demanded for the local rice in my shop this whole year. I will incur losses if I venture into the local rice business,” a trader lamented.
Consequently, the traders recommended that the local rice should be made accessible to traders so that they can sell to patrons since it is unpolished and a healthier type of rice.
“People living with diabetes prefer local rice to the foreign rice. The local rice is very healthy, and consumers of the product gain more energy,” one of the traders explained.
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