“When foreign rice is smuggled into our markets, it undermines our local farmers and agricultural investors. Our government and local entrepreneurs have invested billions to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. Unimpeded smuggling forces local mills to close and leaves our farmer’s bankrupt.
Agriculture is one of our largest employers of youth. By buying smuggled foreign grain instead of locally processed rice, we effectively export jobs to other countries while worsening unemployment and poverty at home. Smuggled foreign rice is often re-bagged under unhygienic conditions or stored in warehouses for years, deteriorating past its safe consumption date”, Acting Customs Area Controller (CAC), Ogun 1 Command, Deputy Comptroller Oladapo Olukayode Afeni speaking on the ills of smuggling at the command headquarter, Idiroko, Ogun State during the display of seizures of cannabis sativa and other smuggled prohibited items recently.
