By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Tema, March 1, GNA – The General Agriculture Workers Union (GAWU) has said the reduction of rice imports in Ghana as stated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo in the State of the Nation’s Address, is due to smuggling.
Mr Edward Kareweh, the General Secretary of GAWU, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), in reaction to the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), said the reduction did not mean that there was an abundance of local rice being produced in the country.
Mr Kareweh said the reduction was rather due to an influx of smuggled rice into the country, saying in 2023, most of the local farmers could not sell their produce due to the foreign rice that had penetrated the market.
He said, “When we say rice importation levels have come down, it’s not suggesting that we have produced enough; there has been so much illegal importation of rice into this country.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during the SONA, said that between 2021 and 2023, rice imports fell by some 45 per cent.
He had stated that in 2021, rice imports amounted to 805, 000 metric tonnes, but reduced to 650,000 in 2022 and a further reduction to 440,000 metric tonnes in 2023.”
The President had assured Ghanaians that this healthy trajectory would continue until the country achieved full self-sufficiency in rice production.
GNA