The President of the Ghana Rice Inter-Professional has condemned the resumption of rice importation by the government, citing the country's porous borders.
The development, he opines, is in complete aberrant with government’s policy to promote local rice production in the country.
He was speaking at the 3rd Ghana Rice Festival held in Accra.
“We want to plead with the government on behalf of our rice farmers to close the inland borders that have been opened to bring in more foreign rice when we still have porous inland borders with lots of unapproved routes for smuggling,” he said.
“This development is contradictory to government’s position to promote the production and consumption of the country’s local own foodstuffs.”
The government had earlier allayed the fears of the local rice producers, saying it will team up with the security services to check the menace of smuggling.
The head of tax advisory unit at the Trade and Industry Ministry, Lawrence Osei Boateng, said that small-scale rice importance has assured the ministry that they will do clean business by avoiding under invoicing and smugling.
The move to lift the made has also been heavily criticised by the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Mr Sampson Asaki.