UK Trade Mission Brings Innovative Rice-Growing Methods to Nigeria
After more than six months of negotiations, Croydon-based company Trans4mation Agritech Ltd (T4M) has negotiated an impressive 25-year contract to grow rice in Nigeria, using innovative Vietnamese rice-growing techniques, and is finding joint venture partners with the help of UK Trade & Investment (UKTI).
The project will give the UK a share of the worldwide rice industry by adapting 30,000 hectares of land in the Niger Delta for mechanised farming for large-scale commercial rice, cassava and other associated crop production and processing. The project has also been welcomed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), as it will contribute to food security, employment creation and sustainable development for all nine Niger Delta States of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The project was established by T4M’s Group Operations and Development Director, Dr Sample Ibemerum, in consultation with Professor Vo Tang Xuan, a Vietnamese rice expert who has developed a short-duration, disease-resistant Vietnamese strain of long grain rice with a three-month growing cycle (reduced from the usual four to six months). The rice is perfect for growing in the Niger Delta, which has a similar soil texture, topology and climate to Vietnam. A demonstration farm in Ghana is already producing 20,000 hectares of the three-month strain, following initial tests.
Dr Ibemerum approached UKTI in 2008 with the aim of finding Vietnamese joint-venture partners. Prior to a UKTI Trade Mission to Vietnam in November 2008, London International Trade Adviser Bryan Treherne advised the company to take part in UKTI’s Passport to Export programme of advice and support for new and inexperienced exporters, and to commission an Overseas Market Introduction Service (OMIS) report on the Vietnam market. The report produced a list of potential joint-venture partners, including government ministries, research institutes, universities and agricultural machinery companies concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, through which business has been established with several companies.
After the visit, Dr Ibemerum said: “Rice knows no boundaries! On behalf of T4M I’d like to say thank you to the UKTI London International Trade Team. I’d also like to extend my thanks to all UKTI Embassy staff in Nigeria, and in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam, for all their support, guidance and advice, and for making our trade mission to Vietnam a success. Our first trade mission was so successful, we are planning a second in 2009, and are hoping to access markets in Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria with UKTI’s help.”
Bryan Treherne added: ”The project represents a landmark achievement for a UK company, and it has been a pleasure working with such an enthusiastic company, who know what they want to achieve and go all out to reach their objectives. It confirms that UK companies are very capable of trading internationally.”