Togo: Rice Imports Exceeded CFA43 Billion in 2023

Economic governance

Thursday, 16 January 2025 10:01

Togo: Rice Imports Exceeded CFA43 Billion in 2023

(Togo First) - Togo imported over CFA43 billion worth of rice in 2023. The figure was disclosed by Djélé Dahouda, National Coordinator of the Food System Resilience Program in West Africa (FSRP), during an event held last month. Organized by the national institute of statistics, the INSEED, the event focused on mapping the rice industry in Togo.

Value-wise, rice imports in 2023 were 150% higher than in 2019. That year, they stood at CFA16.7 billion.

According to Djélé Dahouda, the surge reflects the country’s heavy reliance on imported rice to meet its needs. “This situation calls for urgent action to overcome the constraints and achieve self-sufficiency in rice,” he noted while stressing that national production covered only 32% of domestic demand in 2023.

Togo imports most of its rice from Thaïland. According to data from Thaï exporters reported by the Ecofin Agency, the West African country bought 52,568 tonnes from Thaïland in 2023.

That year, Togo was Thaïland’s 10 biggest importer, worldwide. However, Togo imported less rice from the Asian country than its neighbor, Benin (139,206 tonnes), or other African countries like Zimbabwe (55,691 tonnes), Algeria (76,747 tonnes), or Angola (135,909 tonnes).

In 2020, Togo adopted an updated version of its National Rice Development Strategy (SNDR 2), to curb dependency on rice imports. Featuring several projects, the strategy aims to boost Togo’s output to 1,115,087 tonnes by 2030, from 145,489 tonnes in 2019.

This article was initially published in French by Esaïe Edoh

Edited in English by Ola Schad Akinocho

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