About 375,636 metric tonnes of rice (7,512,720 bags of 50kg) will arrive in the seaports in Lagos by end of December, shipping statistics from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for the month have indicated.
This is compared to about 280,000mt (5,600,000 bags of rice) imported through Lagos ports in November, indicating 35 per cent rise. A tonne has 20 50kg bags of rice.
Already, half the volume of rice imports have been offloaded from vessels at the various terminals, while about 187,818 metric tons (MT) making up 3,756,360 50kg bags of rice, are expected to arrive the Lagos ports before Christmas.
Out of the volume, the Shipping Position released by NPA showed that while vessels bearing 30,000MT of rice are awaiting berth, those bearing 157,818MT are expected to have berthed between December 19 and December 22.
The ENL Terminal will receive the largest bulk of the imported rice of about 162,850MT coming in seven mother ships. The ships are Christos Theo, Maritime Unity and TradeLink, all 190-Metre vessels bearing 23,050MT, 25,500MT and 35,500MT of rice respectively. Christos Theo is expected to arrive in ENL on Wednesday next week, Maritime Unity the next day and TradeLinkon December 22.
Others are Aristea M and Promise2, laden with 8,000mtand 30,700mt of rice and arriving in December 15 and December 20 respectively.