Nigeria To Manufacture Rice Wine Soon, Stop Importation

PLANS are underway by stakeholders in the rice production value chain to begin the manufacturing of rice wine, the National Secretary, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria ( RIFAN), Dr Livinus Nwangwa has said.

Nwangwa, who disclosed this while speaking to The Guardian in Abuja yesterday, hinted that Nigeria has also stopped the importation of rice.

He hinted that not only is Nigeria getting ready to join rice exporting countries, he claimed that Nigeria is also exploring the possibilities of using rice as a by- product for other consumables.

“Rice is not only good for eating. There is rice wine, and rice cake amongst other products. For example, rice wine is very nice and tastes so good. Rice wine is well developed in Japan where I studied rice development. RIFAN is spearheading the manufacturing of rice wine in Nigeria.

“The process is already ongoing. Rice wine goes through the same fermentation process wheat, sorghum and malt go through to make wine. We have had a series of meetings with the Ambassador of Japan and his team on this issue. We are trying to go to Japan and Thailand to get this done,” he said.

While applauding the Federal Government for providing the

necessary support through the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), he added that the support is responsible for the achievements rice farmers have recorded so far.

He accused foreigners of repackaging Nigerian rice as imported, saying, “Nigeria no longer import rice. What we see now is that foreigners buy our rice and repackage into foreign bags as ‘ foreign rice’. Nigerian rice is almost of the same standard as imported.