The Minister gave the reason on Tuesday, while responding to questions at a Town Hall meeting in Abuja.
Ogbe pointed out that one of the major reasons was that most of the imported rice was subsided by the foreign governments.
He disclosed that most of the imported rice are from Vietnam, India and Thailand.
The Minister said that Thailand subsides the export of rice.
He further explained that the imported rice arrive at about 9,000 per bag, and are then sold at about N13,000 per bag to consumers unlike the local rice sold at about N16,000 per bag.
Ogbe also decried the interest rates for farming loans.
He said, “Our interest rates in this country is higher that the interest rate in most parts of the world.”
He also revealed another reason for the high cost of local rice as the high cost of diesel to run generators in the farms, noting that, “diesel went from N180 per litre to N300.”
The minister said the federal government would be having a meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun to discuss rice prices among other matters.
He added that, “In the next one month, you’ll have Nigerian rice in the shop at the best price we’ve ever had.”
