GHANA – The Ghana Commodity Exchange has added rice contracts to the number of commodities traded on the GCX electronic trading platform.
Established two years ago to help transform and standardise commodity trading in the country, GCX has listed maize, soya bean, sorghum and sesame contracts for trade and with the addition of rice, it brings the total number of commodities traded to five.
The move is expected to boost local rice production and consumption as government works to put a moratorium on rice importation by 2022.
The country currently imports about 50% of rice consumed and government, through Planting for Food and Jobs, plans to support the value chain to satisfy 100% of local demand by 2025.
It is estimated that about 1.2 million metric tonnes of rice would be produced in the 2020/21 harvest year. However, just about 750,000 metric tonnes were produced during the 2019 crop season.
The Exchange regulating rice trading in the country with its grading system, is aimed to enable buyers and sellers appropriately judge the quality of the produce they trade.
These innovations give farmers the chance to further enhance the value of their produce and make it a much more attractive option on both the local and international market.
“I am wholly confident that this step taken here today to launch rice trading through the Exchange will be of immense value to the Ghanaian rice farmers.”
President of Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB) – Nana Adjei Ayeh II
The CEO of GCX Mrs Tucci Goka Ivowi affirmed that the organisation has worked with “rice market actors to deliberate on dynamics that occur in trading rice and ensure that all considerations to ensure the most efficient methods for trading rice on the Exchange are taken into account.”
The listing is targeted to increase marketing opportunities for rice farmers as well as address post-harvest loss issues and their lack of financing, which are key industry concerns.
The GCX Warehouse Receipt Financing Scheme will also benefit rice farmers who can leverage their produce to obtain capital from banks at reasonable rates which can then be reinvested into their agribusiness ventures.
” I am wholly confident that this step taken here today to launch rice trading through the Exchange will be of immense value to the Ghanaian rice farmers.
“We know what trading through GCX guarantees for the farmer in terms of quality, transparency, and most importantly, timely payment,” said President of GRIB Nana Adjei Ayeh II.
Earlier this year, the GCX signed Memorandum of understanding with a number of rice industry players including the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body ( GRIB ), the John Agyekum Kufuor Foundation ( JAK ), Intervalle Geneve and others to support the production, post-harvest management and marketing of rice produced in Ghana.
In its quest to become self-sufficient in rice production, the West African nation recently inaugurated a rice processing center in the Adansi-South District of the Ashanti Region, constructed under the government’s One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative.
The facility has a processing capacity of 140 bags of rice per day and was constructed under the supervision of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and B. Kaakyire Agro Chemicals Company Limited.
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