The Ivorian government wants to increase its domestic rice production while also aiming to become food self-sufficient by 2020.

To achieve this objective the country has just received a 30 million dollar loan facility from the Exim bank of India

The money will be used to build new infrastructure to boost rice production.

According to a government spokesperson, 30 production units with a capacity of 25,000 tons per year should be operational by the end of the year.

Twelve out of the 30 production units are already in operation.

In order for the government’s lofty ambitions to be realised, it has to reduce the prices of local rice to stave off competition form imported rice into the country.

Imported rice is still very popular, and import numbers have even increased from 1.25 million tonnes to 1.45 million tonnes between 2016 and 2017.

Côte d’Ivoire in 2016 set an ambitious target to become food self-sufficient.

Future infrastructure should help Ivory Coast to produce 2 million tons of rice in order to boost the competitiveness of local rice.