Flour Mills of Nigeria to invest in locally produced rice

Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) will soon invest in the production and processing of locally grown rice through the participation of local farmers and other stakeholders in the supply chain.

The announcement was made by the company’s group managing director Paul Gbededo, at a ‘Facts Behind the Figures’ event in Lagos.

"Nigeria consumes about 4 million metric tonnes of rice and we need about 1 million acres of land to achieve that. We want to start aggregating by involving others in the supply chain," said Gbededo.

FMN, which used to produce wheat-based products, initially began its rice business in 2009 by importing par-boiled rice into Nigeria. In 2010, the company constructed a rice mill which had the capacity to process brown rice to par-boiled rice.

He further stated that the production of rice was affected by the tariff on its import as imported rice was cheaper than rice produced locally. He said that the increase in import tariff would also enhance its profit margin.

Gbededo said: "We are commissioning and improving our capacity utilisation. Our new investments and projects are reaching maturity.

"We would start production at the 350,000 metric tons per annum edible oil processing company in Ibadan by the end of this year, our snack business is reaching maturity with the completion of Golden snack facility in Agbara, the $250m Golden sugar investment, our oil palm processing, all these investments would start impacting on the bottom line moving forward."

FMN saw a 22.45% appreciation in its profits for the year 2013.