Mrs. Juliana Ariyo, bought a bag of 50kg long grain rice, branded ‘Mama Africa’ from the popular rice market, Daleko in Mushin Lagos.
From the first day she cooked the rice, her whole family enjoyed it so much that she made up her mind to stick to that brand.
As soon as the rice finished months after, she eagerly went back to the same market to purchase the same brand of rice.
Fortunately, on getting to the market she saw the brand and happily parted with N57,000 despite the fact that few months ago when she made her first purchase it was N50,000.
With the alarming way prices of goods jump up in Nigeria now, everyone knows that the price one pays for a product yesterday may not be the price of the product the next day.
Anyway that is a story for another day.
After making her payment, Mrs. Ariyo happily ordered the sales man to drop the bag of rice inside the boot of her vehicle and happily drove home anticipating the kind of satisfaction she experienced with her first purchase.
The next day she ventured to make rice meal for her family of five. She opened the bag of rice to measure out some cups but on sighting the rice grains she saw it was entirely different from the contents of the first bag she bought. The grains of rice from this bag were very short and some broken. It was as if someone bagged runoff or leftover rice from the rice factory.
Surprised and believing the wrong bag must have been loaded for her she scrutinised the rice bag, but it was the same bag of rice she chose, the same brand name as the first one she bought, the lettering, etcetera on the bag. Dejected and annoyed, she still cooked the rice.This time the rice took longer to cook, and ended up sticky and marshy as if it was semovita meal or the popular hausa meal rice meal ‘tuwo shinkafa’. Mrs. Ariyo, of course, did not add more water than necessary when she was cooking the rice.
This is the trend in the rice industry. It has been going on for long and nothing is being done about it.
One cannot guarantee the brand of rice she/he is eating based on the brand name on the bag.
One may be eating ‘Royal Umbrella’ bagged in a rice bag branded ‘Enugu rice’ or ‘Kebbi rice’ or one may be eating ‘JOK Rice’ bagged in a bag branded ‘Mama Choice’.What brand of rice is in the bag of the rice you have just bought? Is it Royal Umbrella, Stallion, Marvel, Caprice, El Faradj, Mama Gold,etcetera? It is only the wholesaler and retailer that can honestly answer that question.
Adulteration has permeated the rice industry just like in every other sector. The story of Mrs. Felicia Okonkwo, a caterer with the Nigerian Prison Authorities, is not different from Mrs. Ariyo’s narration.
Felicia Okonkwo, had just ordered some bags of Royal Umbrella rice at the normal price of N57,000. Royal Umbrella, because it is about one of the best rice in the market.
According to Mrs. Okonkwo, on opening the 50kg bag, and seeing the rice, she realised it was not the rice she has been buying.
Unlike the Royal Umbrella, this particular rice grain was not slim and long and also did not have the shinny finish of Royal Umbrella.
On opening the second bag of rice she bought, she noticed also that it was not the brand she had asked for.
The content of this second bag was even different from the contents of the first bag she opened and both bags were supposed to be the same brand.
After listening to the stories of the above buyers, our correspondent decided to take a trip to different rice markets. Posing as a buyer, she went to Daleko market.
As she walked through the market, she saw many empty rice bags printed with popular rice brand names displayed for sale for those traders wishing to falsely repackage unpopular rice under popular brand names.
She walked to line 2, Shop 34. The shop owner, Madame Funmi Olobanjo, popularly called Oyo Oyo Rice, was forthcoming, believing she was a rice retailer.
She said the popular brands she wanted was scarce but that she could bag rice that looked similar to the ones she wanted under the brand name she wanted.
However, the ones that are usually adulterated are the brands in high demand, especially when they are no longer in the market and buyers keep demanding for them.
Also at the Agege Market, Shop No 18, Shiaba Street, Alhaji Musa Abubakar, though confirming the adulteration of rice, said that not all the traders were involved in the nefarious activities.
The way to avoid falling into the hands of these dupes, he advised, is to maintain a customer.
“Find an honest customer and stick to him,” he said.
At Iddo, another popular rice market where the adulteration seemed to be rife, Mr. Anene Ikeanyionwu, a rice dealer, while condemning the actions of some of his fellow traders, also blamed consumers for sometimes insisting on a particular brand.
“The difference in some of these brands, especially the rice from Thailand is not much. They are all good rice just that they have been branded in different names. There is no much difference between El Faradj, Super rice, Royal Umbrella and the other brands. The only thing is that those brands have been marketed better,” lamented Ikeanyionwu. “Where the difference is noticeable is between rice imported from India and the one imported from Thailand. Indian rice is of smaller seed and sells for about N47,000 while Thai rice is of bigger and longer grain which consumers prefer and which goes for between N57,000 – N60,000.”
But a consumer has the right to know what he or she is buying and right to preference.
Investigations by Consumer Watch revealed that at all the popular rice markets in Lagos like Iddo, Daleko, Ketu, Mile 12, Alaba, Sango Otta, the story is the same.
Printed rice bags of different brands are openly on display for traders to buy and repackage and rebrand. Grain sack-sewing machines are equally on display. Almost all the wholesalers are involved in this act and they engage in it right inside their stores, though discreetly.
Investigations further revealed that the union can’t stop the adulteration because the members are the wholesalers who are deeply involved in the adulteration.
