- Dangote Plans to Start Exporting Rice Soon
Dangote Group has promised to change Nigeria from a rice importing nation to a major exporter of the product.
Kunt Ulvmoen, Dangote Group’s Executive Director, disclosed this at the ongoing 33rd Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF).
He said the group 150,000 hectares spread across Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto and Zamfara States as well as the 10 rice mills under construction in different parts of the country will deliver on million tons of rice yearly.
Ulvmoen also stated that Dangote was number one in rice business in Nigeria before the group decided to terminate commodity trading without backward integration.
He said several years after the group terminated rice importation, customers are still asking for Dangote rice.
“So what do we do? We are entering into rice farming and processing and targeting a million tons output annually.
“We are already active in the farms. We have already got some paddy rice in some silos. We are also challenging others to do what we are setting out to do in order to make rice an exportable product in Nigeria,” Ulvmoen added.
According to him, Dangote group is also working on making Nigeria self-sufficient in Sugar, fertilizer and refined petroleum products.
He noted that the company’s ongoing three million tons per annum fertilizer is one of the world’s largest granulated urea fertilizer complex.
“The urea production is the starting point. Additional products will come out. We are aiming to have all the different fertilizer products like NPK etc. that are needed to improve the yields for the farmers.
“Nigeria is today importing fertilizer. But we do not want only to be importing. We want to be self-sufficient and move on to massive exportation of fertilizer,” he said.