Description

Rice milling is the process that helps in removal of hulls and bran’s from paddy grains to produce polished rice. Rice is rich in genetic diversity with thousands of varieties grown throughout the world. Rice has been one of man’s most important foods. Today, this unique grain helps sustain two-thirds of the world’s population. It is life for thousands of millions of people. It is deeply embedded in the cultural heritage of their societies. About four-fifths of the world’s rice are produced by small-scale farmers and are consumed locally.

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in Asia. It is the grain with the second-highest worldwide production, after maize (corn), according to data for 2010.

Rice is a vital food material for more than half of the world’s population, the importance of which as a food crop has been increasing with increase in population.

Five million metric tons of rice, amounting to about 100 million 50kg bags of rice, is consumed yearly in the country, figures from the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) have indicated.

The figures show that 2.1 million metric tons of rice is imported into the country yearly. Cheap rice imports have continued to take a larger share of the market, while local variants struggle.

This cheapness of imported rice is, in spite of the recent 10 per cent import duty and 100 per cent levy imposed on it by the Federal Government, in January. The price of imported rice is still lower than the local one, due to the adequate infrastructure for farmers in the foreign rice producing countries, and subsidies on rice production by foreign governments.

It is estimated that Nigeria’s rice consumption is projected to reach 35 million tonnes by 2050, from five million tonnes, rising at the rate of seven per cent yearly.

There is high demand for rice in Nigeria. With a population of over 165 million people and an estimated national population growth rate of 5.7% per annum ,an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five {5} years, Nigeria has a large market for rice.

This report examines the financial viability of establishing a paddy rice processing plant in Nigeria. Apart from Abakiliki rice, in Nigeria today, some states produce paddy rice in abundance. Some of these states are Enugu, Anambra, Abia, Imo, Kwara, Edo, Ogun, Ondo, Cross River State and some Northern States such as Sokoto, Taraba etc

Due the landing cost of imported rice in Nigeria and that of the raw material { paddy rice}, it important the investor site the plant very close to the raw material and market in order to reduce cost.

The installed capacity of the proposed factory is 20 tons of paddy rice per hour and the plant is expected to operate at 70% capacity of the installed capacity.