One of Nigeria’s leading rice millers, Labana Rice Mills has commenced discussions with the government of Benin Republic on collaboration to engage in large scale production of the product.
The General Manager of Labana Rice, Abdullahi Zuru disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
According to Zuru, a three-man government delegation from Benin visited Birnin Kebbi, capital of Kebbi State, to meet with the Board of Directors and management of the Mills during which modalities for the collaboration were proposed.
“The idea of the partnership has come at the time the federal government has selected Labana Rice among other rice mills for its proposed plan for Nigerian rice exports to African countries, in view of its high capacity and quality of products.
“The Benin delegation include the Deputy Ambassador of Benin Republic to Nigeria, Alfred Akossoun; Director General of Benin Agency for Agricultural Development, Jean Dansou and a member of Benin National Assembly, Isaa Salfou,” the statement reads.
The management team lead by Zuru, told the delegation that Labana Rice has a 16 tonnes per hour capacity, which is being upgraded to 20 tonnes per hour capacity.
He added that another new 20 tonnes per hour capacity mill will be ready for commissioning early next year and will require 400,000 metric tons of rice for sustainable production annually.
A joint meeting on the proposal was also held with the members of the Board of Directors under the chairmanship of Abubakar Adamu.
Adamu also led the delegation to visit the 10,000 hectares Labana Rice Farms in Bagudo Local Government Area in order to assess the company’s capacity in terms of machinery to cultivate large scale farms.
With Akossoun’s 40 tonnes per hour capacity rice mills and 10,000 hectares rice farm, the government of Benin Republic was prepared to go into partnership with the company in Nigeria for mutual benefit.
“With what we saw, the proposal for providing 30,000 hectares of farm land to Labana, along Malaviel and Karimama boundary areas in Benin Republic will be deliberated upon when we return home and thereafter invite you to sign the memorandum of Understanding.”
