Nigeria will be the world second largest buyer of rice in 2019 if the projection of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is anything to go by.
According to USDA projection, Nigeria’s rice imports will jump 13 percent next year to 3.4 million metric tons, making Africa’s most populous country the world’s biggest rice importer after China.
“China and Nigeria are projected to remain the largest rice importing countries in 2019, followed by the EU, Cote d’Ivoire, and Iran,” the USDA said in its latest Rice Outlook released Tuesday. “Nigeria and Egypt are projected to account for the bulk of the 2019 import increase.”
The forecast growth is a setback for the Nigerian government, which plans to stop rice imports by the end of this year to save foreign currency.
Production had increased more than 50 percent since 2012 to 3.7 million tons last year. Domestic demand rose 4 percent to 6.7 million tons in the 2017-18 year that ended in May.
President Muhammadu Buhari wants to diversify Nigeria’s economy away from hydrocarbons, and agriculture is one of the sectors he has bet on. The economy of Africa’s biggest oil producer is still recovering from a slump in 2016, after the crash in crude prices.