Mauritians should consume more of Mighty Rice grown and Made in Mauritius


Made in Moris

I have been eating rice since my childhood and Mighty Rice is the best rice I have ever had! It tastes so good and if you check its specifications its one of the healthiest! This product needs our support as local consumers and at least a pack should land into your trolley when you leave the supermarket. Taste it and let me know how you liked it in the comments section below.

Mighty Rice is grown in Mauritius. It is not grown in ponds or shallow lakes of water like how you can see it being done commonly in Madagascar. Its grown from seeds just like normal plants. I will not go too much into details about the specifications of this rice as you can read most of it on the mighty rice website.

The reason why you should be concerned about rice in Mauritius, is because the island imports around 76 000 tonnes per year. Mauritius has made itself dependent on this import. YET if Mauritians were to change their eating habits, they would be able to survive from local produce alone. Mauritius can produce a lot of potatoes variants and you can easily grow some manioc, sweet potatoes and other variants in your own backyard. This is just some “food” for thought. If rice can be grown in Mauritius, it would be great to see that import figure go down a bit. Obviously for having varieties of choice as a consumer the importation is most likely here to stay.

Mighty Rice from Mauritius

Mighty Rice from Mauritius

Having a look at the figures
I buy a packet of mighty rice at Super U and it costs me Rs.80 for 500g.
For a bag of 5Kg Basmati Rice I usually pay around Rs.250. There is a lot of choice and a lot of price variations. Cheaper and more expensive. Over the years I just sticked to one brand.

So if you make the comparison for 500g it will cost me around Rs.25 for an imported rice while a local produce will cost me Rs.80. So it’s Rs.55 more.

Is it worth it to pay more?
I say yes. Quality has its price, and you should care for what you put into your stomach. Don’t treat it like a cemetery.

If I will buy 5Kg of Mighty Rice it will cost me Rs.800.
If I go to the Restaurant two times it will also cost me Rs.800.
There are a lot of comparisons you can make for Rs.800.

Will you change your consumption habits?
Definitely, Mighty Rice will not fit or match many large family households needs. Just imagine how much rice per day 10 persons eat. It will be to expensive for many. And for some when they do the maths they will go for what is cheapest.
It might also be price wise not possible to completely shift and only buy this rice. On one hand I would suggest to change your buying habit and do a mix, some of what you usually buy and some of the local produce. In order to support the local production.

Also do some price comparisons of your consumption habits. You might see if its within your budget to opt for a more pricey rice.

It is currently still more kind of a niche product.

This is where some of my friends raise their voices and say, it shouldn’t be a niche product. It’s rice Made in Mauritius. It should be sold here only, and not exported and help to reduce the amount of rice we import. Also, when rice gets produced in Mauritius and exported, it creates a CO2 footprint.

See below my questions that I have asked to Mighty Rice and their answers which sheds some light on this topic.

Let me know what you think regarding this topic in the comments section below.

Mighty Rice from Mauritius

Mighty Rice from Mauritius

 

Questions @Mighty Rice
12.03.2015
Hello mighty rice team and fans! After a long time waiting I finally got hold of your rice! I bought a pack of 500g long-grain white rice at Super U, Grand Baie at Rs.80. The feeling of buying a local produce, of high quality, low in GI and arsenic value and excellent taste makes us proud! As you know, the best way to get a recommendation is in producing an excellent product or offering a very good service. Therefore I have recommended your rice to all my friends and spread the word on my social media accounts. Yet, when talking to friends, many questions arose, and some just don’t want to believe how pure & special your product is – or some wonder, why do you export? Find below a few accolades of the great job you are doing and some questions. I hope you can take some time aside and answer them. A better informed customer might make a more loyal one!

✔ Your CI (Corporate Identity) Well done. Texts/copy writing professionally written, short, compact and fun to read. Nice website presentation, easy to click and get infos. Your social media presence on Facebook is well done to and well managed. Whoever is managing your account is doing a great job and it’s praise worthy to see that you respond to most requests/questions/posts of us interested in what you are doing.

✔ 500g re-sealable bags. Practical and well chosen. Beautiful design. Also your slogans/statements and selling messages are excellent.

¿Questions:
Seeds
Where do they come from? What are the steps carried out to generate seeds?

Why do you export?
Since Mauritius imports around 76,000 tonnes of rice. Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell ALL of the rice locally also considering the CO2 footprint you generate by using transportation to ship rice to continents so far away? Do you need to export because your cost of operations are of a level where if you were to sell locally only you wouldn’t cover costs? Would the Government provide you some subsidies? …I mean rice in Mauritius should be in their interest to.

For Farmers
It will only apply for farmers who have land on the east and the south right? Till how long must they wait until they can have their first harvest? How much will you pay per tonne? Considering that the Government now has to partly subsidize sugar cane for small planters as the price they get per tonne is getting lower and lower. How much tonne of rice can a farmer expect to produce on 1 arpent? (What is an arpent? It is around 4220 square metres →http://sizes.com/units/arpent_Mauritius.htm)

Tillage
How long are the periods in-between when you don’t grow rice? What kind of strategy do you use to have rice permanently? Do you split the property into various parts, let’s say 12, where you plant seeds lets say each month? A cyclic procedure?
Best regards, Dietmar Reigber


 

Response from Mighty Rice @Dietmar on the 13.03.2015:
Hi Dietmar,
Thank you so much for reaching out to us and for your encouraging comments. We are very grateful for your support.

Here are answers to your questions:

Seeds:
Our rice variety was developed naturally through years of cross-pollinating different rice varieties from around the world looking for specific traits such as high amylose which leads to lower glycemic index levels as well as the ability of the rice to grow on dry land. Our rice is Non-GMO Project verified.

We grow all our rice seeds in Mauritius on specific plots. As the sole rice grower in Mauritius, it makes it easy to maintain the purity of our line.

On the matter of exports:
We only export rice that cannot be sold locally. Mauritius is very much a basmati market and it will take time for people to appreciate the qualities of locally grown rice. You are right in assuming our growing costs are high compared to rice grown in other countries. This stems primarily to the small scale of our farming operation and the need to build the entire infrastructure for the industry.

For Farmers:
Rainfall is a critical factor in determining where we grow rice in Mauritius. This means we can only grow in Superhumid regions. Additionally, we can only grow rice on land which is large enough for us to plant and harvest mechanically. It is difficult to plant rice on small plots located around the island.

We are hoping to increase production by working with sugar planters and growing rice on plots of land that are left fallow for a season during crop rotation.

Tillage:
Due to the cool winter in Mauritius, only one crop is possible. We currently work with some outgrowers who grow sugar and during their rotations they grow a rice crop. Our rice crop takes on average 5 months from planting to harvest. For the rest of the year, we grow a range of different plants such as brassicas e.g. mustard. These plants are natural biofumigants that naturally release compounds that suppress pests and pathogens as well as fixing nitrogen to the soil.

Certifications:
We carry out our arsenic testing at a leading institute in the US on the matter, Dartmouth. The results can be seen here: http://goo.gl/DccYgY

For our glycemic index verification, all tests are conducted by Sydney University’s Glycemic Index Testing Service, a leader in GI testing and the operators of glycemicindex.com. Our result can be seen here: http://goo.gl/EDXxjs

Thank you again Dietmar. It is always a pleasure to converse with our fans

How do you like the taste of Might Rice? Does it make you proud that Mauritius produces an excellent rice? Share with us your Mighty Rice experience.


6 thoughts on “Mauritians should consume more of Mighty Rice grown and Made in Mauritius

  1. Yasir

    Erm. The healthiest rice is brown rice which is in fact complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs are broken down slowly compared to white rice which causes insulin spikes when consumed.

    Non-whole meal (white breads, white rice, white pastas) stuff are metabolized within 2 hours – As soon as you ingest it, your body produces insulin to process these carbs.

    I usually avoid rice at night unless it is about a Muslim Wedding Briyani :p

     
    Reply
    1. Dietmar Reigber

      Hi Yasir!

      Thanks for your contribution which makes it a great supplement to that article.
      I definitely am lagging on the brown rice which is the next MUST on my todos list when I go rice buying again! I definitely missed that part out in my article.
      At night I prefer to avoid a dinner, but just eat some dark bread with sun seed which you can now get at Super U. And you don’t need a lot of it.

      I think a lot of people do the contrary, they eat no proper breakfast nor lunch (just snacking) but then a huge dinner before sleep, just when they will not need that much of the energy…

      Yummy Briyani… hmm, it’s been a long time I haven’t had one, must catch up!!!

      Did you eat the Mighty Rice yet? If yes, do you like it?

       
      Reply
  2. Jalan - Ali

    Hi,

    I tried Mighty Rice which goods but expensive.
    After a lot of search on the net and phone calls, I was informed that the Rice is available only in some supermarkets.
    I had to drive to La Croisette to get them. As its expensive, automatically the rice consumption went down and brought new healthy eating trends in the family. I propose that Mighty Rice should go for an aggressive marketing locally and make the rice more accessible in more Hypermarkets.
    If easily available, I will myself happily swap to Mighty Rice

    Jalan – Ali

     
    Reply
    1. Dietmar Reigber

      Hello Jalan-Ali,

      thank you very much for your feedback! I buy it at Super U. But I didn’t see any of the brown rice packages. In which region are you located? I noticed that in Mauritius we have a bad habit of putting a very large amount of rice on our plates first, and then we put a small amount of vegetables on top of it… It should be vice versa, a small amount of rice and a large amount of vegetables. It’s really interesting what you say from the point of view that the more expensive rice has lead you to change your consumption habit and eat more healthy! It is a perspective I was completely unaware of. It shows, in my opinion that you are like me a big fan of this rice and you support Made in Moris products which is good for our local fragile economy. Am sure if Mighty Rice would read this they would find this interesting to.

      You are right, there is basically NO marketing campaign for mighty rice that came to my attention. Some billboards, big newspaper ads, social media ads etc. could help boost it’s sales!

      Sunny regards from Grand Baie!
      Dietmar

       
      Reply

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