Togo’s rice imports were over CFA43 billion in 2023. Djélé Dahouda, National Coordinator of the Food System Resilience Programme in West Africa (FSRP), revealed the figure at an event last month. The event was organized by Togo's national statistics institute, INSEED, and focused on mapping the rice industry.

Togo’s Rice Imports

Rice imports in 2023 totaled 150% more than in 2019 from CFA16.7 billion.

According to Djélé Dahouda, the increase reflects the country's reliance on imported rice to meet its requirements. "This situation calls for urgent action to overcome the constraints and achieve self-sufficiency in rice," he said, emphasizing that national production would only meet 32% of domestic demand in 2023.

Togo primarily imports rice from Thailand. In 2023, the West African country purchased 52,568 tonnes from Thaïland, as reported by the Ecofin Agency based on data from exporters.

Togo ranked among Thaïland's top ten global importers that year. Togo, however, imported less rice from the Asian country than its neighbor, Benin (139,206 tonnes), or other African countries such as Zimbabwe (55,691 tonnes), Algeria (76,747 tonnes), or Angola (135,909 tonnes).

To reduce dependence on rice imports, Togo updated its National Rice Development Strategy (SNDR 2) in 2020. The strategy includes several projects and aims to increase Togo's output to 1,115,087 tonnes by 2030, up from 145,489 tonnes in 2019.