The preference of Nigerians for foreign products is being exploited by marketers in the country. For instance, it has been discovered that there are marketers who sell local rice to Nigerians as foreign brands. This came to the open, when the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) raided the Utako Ultramodern Market on Tuesday and confirmed the illegal re-bagging of rice. The Director of Surveillance and Investigations at the commission, Mrs. Boladale Adeyinka, said the raid was in response to intelligence received by the commission.
During the operation, Adeyinka explained that Nigerian rice, also known as local rice, was being re-bagged into foreign-branded sacks, despite the discontinuation of those foreign products in the market.
Adeyinka identified the discontinued brands still in circulation as Royal Stallion, Mama Gold, and Mama Africa.
She said, “Based on intelligence that they are re-bagging foreign brands in this market, and the intelligence of the brand owners that these brands are no longer in the market, we carried out this operation to confirm and validate the intelligence.
“And we confirm that our rice (local rice) is been packaged in foreign brands and sold as foreign rice. And because the appetite of Nigerians is for foreign rice, which is no longer in the market, the market cartels are now going about re-bagging the local rice and selling it as foreign.
“That is exploitative and against the consumer’s economic interest.”
She clarified that the rebagged rice does not originate from Thailand and noted that Mama Gold had discontinued exports to Nigeria as far back as 2015.
According to her, the re-bagging cartel created an unconducive business environment for the original brand owners by exploiting their market.
Adeyinka made it known that “The owners of these brands notified the FCCPC and stated publicly that they have discontinued export to Nigeria. But because of the brand market, they are been exploited by the re-bagging cartels.
“Royal stallion left completely in 2015, while Olam, some of their products, especially Mama Gold and Mama Africa, are not imported into Nigeria.
“These companies notified us that they left the country because of these ongoing practices. The cartel infiltrates Nigerian products as foreign products”.
Speaking further she decried that the re-bagged rice were sold for foreign prices, because foreign rice are the highest-selling product.
Subsequently Adeyinka warned that “A lot of these products are underweight, currently most 50kg bags of rice now weigh 45kg, while noting that “the practice was anti-competitive, and has hindered the growth of local Indigenous industries.”
Speaking on sanctions, the surveillance director explained that the offences included misleading trade practices and deceptive business conduct. She added that the commission would follow due process, applying administrative penalties and fines as allowed by law.
She said, “The due process of the law will be followed, products will be confiscated, shops will be sealed and the commission will follow the trail to bust those producing and re-bagging these local rice as foreign products.
”We have almost ten shops based on our intel, and we have sealed up five, we will keep ourselves under the radar to continue to monitor the intelligence.
“If you resist to cooperate based on our investigations to locate the source, we will prosecute based on the FCCPC act.”
A key outcome of the raid was the closure of a shop selling branded rice bags.