Labana Rice Mill in Kebbi State has begun bilateral discussion with the Republic of Republic to actualise modalities collaboration on large scale rice production.
A three man government delegation from Benin Republic visited Kebbi State for the meeting with both the Board of Directors and Management of the Labana Rice Mills to formulate modalities for the proposed collaboration.
The idea of the partnership was facilitated by the Federal Government after the government had selected Labana Rice Mills among the Rice Mills in Nigeria for its proposed plan for Nigerian Rice exportation to African countries, in view of its high capacity and quality of its products.
The delegation from Benin included; the Deputy Ambassador of Benin republic to Nigeria Mr Alfred Akossoun, Director General of Benin Agency for Agricultural Development Mr Jean Gbeto-Dansou and a member of Benin National Assembly Isaa Saley-Salfou.
Addressing the delegation from Benin Republic on Friday, the General Manager of Labana, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris-Zuru, who led the company’s team, informed the visitors that the company had a 16 tonnes per hour capacity.
According to him, “the rice mills has been upgraded to 20 tones per hour while another brand new 20 tonnes per hour capacity will be ready for commissioning early next year and will then require 400,000 metric tonnes of rice for sustainable production annually”.
Another joint meeting on the proposal was held with the members of the Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Abubakar Abbah-Adamu.
The delegation, accompanied by the Chairman of Labana Rice Mills, Alhaji Abubakar Abba Adamu, visited Labana Rice Farms with 10,000 hectares in Bagudo Local Government Area in order to assess the company’s capacity in terms of machinery to cultivate large scale farms.
Speaking to newsmen at the end of the visit, the Director General, Benin Agency for Agricultural Development, Mr Jean Gbeto-Dansou said with 40 tonnes per hour capacity rice mills and 10,000 hectares rice farm, the government of Benin Republic were ready to go into partnership with the company 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, we shall invite you for the memorandum of understanding,” he assured.
