• Nigeria’s rice processors face heavy pressure as large volumes of imported white rice enter the country through Benin.

• Kiara Rice Mills operates Africa’s largest rice-processing facility with a 350,000-ton annual capacity.

• Indian parboiled rice exports to Benin reached $400 million in the first half of 2025, up 22% year-on-year, according to the USDA.

Nigeria remains Africa’s largest consumer of rice. The domestic processing segment continues to face aggressive competition from low-priced Asian imports. The influx of white rice routed through Benin has emerged as a major challenge for local processors, according to comments made by Palash Jain, co-founder and CEO of Kiara Rice Mills, to Platts on 12 November.

Kiara Rice Mills operates a milling plant with an annual processing capacity of 350,000 tons of paddy rice in Mokwa, Niger State. The company also manages a 1,200-hectare rice farm, making it the largest integrated rice operation of its kind on the continent.

Smuggling has sharply increased over the past two years in Africa’s most populous country, which has pursued rice self-sufficiency for two decades. The decline in global rice prices, driven by abundant supply from India—the world’s largest exporter—has encouraged traders to stockpile cheap volumes.

Importers use the Port of Cotonou in Benin as a transit point before moving the rice across Nigeria’s land borders. The surge in supply has placed additional pressure on domestic prices.

Jain says: “There was so much stock of rice in the Republic of Benin that it eventually put downward pressure on prices here in Nigeria. Nigeria does not produce enough rice to meet local demand. Smugglers therefore exploit the situation by bringing rice from the Republic of Benin, where it is then openly sold in Nigeria.”

Jain argues that this structural issue further undermines the competitiveness of the local industry. He adds that processors also face limited access to affordable working capital and struggle to secure raw materials due to insecurity disrupting agricultural activity across major northern production zones.

The executive’s warning aligns with a recent assessment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The agency reported that Indian parboiled rice exports to Benin reached $400 million between January and June 2025, representing a rise of 22% over the same period in 2024. The USDA noted that Benin does not traditionally consume parboiled rice, pointing to onward flows into Nigeria.

This article was initially published in French by Espoir Olodo

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum