Ghana to become net-exporter of rice by 2020 – Mahama

Government has targeted to position Ghana as a net-exporter of Rice by the year 2020, President Mahama has said.

President Mahama who announced this during an address to a select Committee of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh as part of his four-day working visit to that country said: “We’ve taken rice from the production of 30-60% as I speak and so gradually we’re reducing rice import to Ghana”.

The importation of rice top the chart of six commodities that the Ghanaian economy has comparative advantage to produce yet are imported in huge volumes into the country, because of the high demand on the market.

At least 1.5 billion dollars go into the importation of these products annually, including rice but President Mahama has reiterated as part of measures by government to reduce drastically the importation of rice, it will prop up local production that will lead to a steady decline in imported rice.

The price of imported rice has seen continuous reduction of about 20 percent in February, according to ESOKO.

ESOKO Ghana Commodity Index has attributed the continuous decline in the price of imported rice to an increase in demand for local rice by consumers.