The Lagos State Government has said a 50kg bag of Eko Rice from Imota Mill would sell for between N32,000 and N33,000, while the 25kg bag would be sold at prices ranging between N17,000 and N18,000 when its commercial sale finally hits major markets in the state in the first week of June. This was, as the government said, the sale of the rice had started in some parts of the state as against the initial plan to begin by the end of April.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Agriculture and Rice Mill Initiative, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola, said the commercial sales began last week in the Ikeja area of the state, to civil servants and some institutions in the state, adding that the Eko Rice would be available in major markets by the first week of June. Fashola said the price of Eko Rice was not on the high side when compared with the same quality of rice in the other markets at N38,000 for a 50kg bag. “Eko rice is already in the market, but you can be sure that the main markets will have it by June. For example, we have started with the Ikeja axis, the civil servants and institutions right now that’s ongoing, we started last week.
“By first week of June, the major markets in Lagos will also start having it”, he said. According to him, there are two sets of issues – the distributor price and the market price. The market price average is between N32,000 and N33,000 for the 50kg bag, for the 25kg bag, I think it’s between N17,000 and N18,000”, he said. The Lagos State Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, had signed an agreement with the Lagos Commodities and Future Exchange (LCFE) and major capital market operators, to provide sustainable finance to the commodities ecosystem through the generation of tradable financial instruments. The signing allows the state government the first sub-national to move from infrastructure finance through the capital market to commodities finance, with the objective of becoming the major hub for commodities trading for agricultural products in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
