One of Nigeria’s commodities trading organisations, A.R.N Foods, is making the move into rice milling and production. To process high-quality rice and increase food security in Nigeria, AGI Miltec, a global provider of grain processing solutions, has teamed up with A.R.N Foods.

Adelota Nola, the founder and CEO of ARN Foods, stated during the contract signing ceremony in Lagos on Friday, that his firm will use AGI Milltec’s cutting-edge solutions to process high-quality rice for the Nigerian market as part of their partnership.

Stressing that the collaboration is a team of experts to drive food sustainability and maximize the agricultural value chain which has remained under-explored in Africa. According to Nola, A.R.N. is taking the lead in finding a solution to the shortage of rice which has proven to be the world’s largest staple in demand.

Also in attendance was the Executive Director at Providus Bank, Mr Adeoye, the Chief Executive Officer of Parallex Bank- Olufemi Bakare, Executives from Lotus Bank, Media mogul Chief Dele Momodu and other top executives, partners and stakeholders.

“The deficit is very large. We can only start from somewhere. If we sleep and say the problems are so much and there is nothing we can do about it, then we will all just continue to sleep. But if we say we can do a little by taking the first step to solving the problem like we are doing today, then someone from somewhere can emulate what we are doing.

“If 100 people try to solve the problem, one day the problem will be solved. We have taken the first step to solving the rice deficit problem in Nigeria,” he said.

Vincent Joseph, the Business Development Manager for AGI in Nigeria, discussed the company’s history and experience that made it suitable for ARN’s ambitious goals. The company has over thirty years of experience operating throughout continents and Africa, and it has constructed over ten mill plants in Nigeria.

“The rice quality we see today is due to two reasons. One is the quality of paddy itself and the second comes from the way it is processed. There are still people over here that are using traditional methodology for processing and the quality of that will not be so good.

“We have 25 years’ experience in the rice milling sector. In Nigeria, we are not new. We know the quality of paddy and the requirements. We would like to bring the same quality to Nigeria. This one has been specifically designed for the Nigerian market and we already know the benchmark that Nola is looking for,” he said.

According to Joseph, the collaboration between the two companies would be smooth because A.R.N. Foods already has backward integration and is processing its rice paddies as the next natural step. He emphasised the solid engineering and financial foundation of AGI Milltec.

He also emphasized that the construction of the mill will be according to the acceptable standards from its parent country – Canada, thus issues around managing emissions from the mill plant will not arise.

Currently, Nigeria produces more rice than any other country in West Africa. The nation consumes more rice than any other country in the region in absolute terms because of its massive population. The average national production of milled rice is 3.3 million tonnes, compared to an anticipated 5.2 million tonnes of yearly consumption. But post-harvest loss remains one of the biggest challenges in the rice farming space, with private investment like ARN geared towards the space, it is yet to be seen if local rice production can become sufficient, and become export goods in the global highly competitive market.