N/R Rice Millers Appeal For Credit Support Over High Demand

Rice Millers in the Northern Region are appealing for credit support to help upgrade their equipment in order to meet the growing local demand for Ghana rice.

An ongoing campaign for the consumption of locally produced rice has increased demand, especially as this Christmas season.

But the millers say to meet the quantity and the quality needs; they require efficient equipment to produce the rice. Some of the millers have been speaking to Citi News.

“We have a target of producing about 500 bags of rice every month however the demand is huge and we need to adjust to meet the demand. It requires financing,” one miller said. “We don't have sufficient financing to be able to buy from the farmers in large volumes to be able to produce and sell to the market.”

“Currently, we don't have a grader. We do manual grading. We need a sorter… if you come to us to supply you, to be frank, we can't sort everything,” another said.

Last week, the Ghana Rice Millers Association said it was ready to flood the market with a variety of Ghana Rice brands this festive season because it had secured a deal with some banks to provide funds for the millers at an affordable rate.

The banks included GCB Bank, National Investment Bank, Barclays and ADB Bank.

Members of the association were asked to present their individual proposals to their respective banks.

—citinewsroom