The Colombian Farming Institute (CFI) has announced that 1,000 tonnes of local paddy found to be contaminated with “an identified exotic disease” will be returned to Guyana, a Reuters report on Saturday said.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that Saj Rice Mills (SRM) is the company which exported the paddy to Colombia. Efforts made to contact officials at SRM yesterday were futile but the company is expected to issue a statement shortly.
SRM’s shipment was free of fungi when it left Guyana but this newspaper understands that the infection could have occurred while in Colombia. The same problem has affected a United States shipment to Colombia.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, when contacted by this newspaper yesterday said that he was aware of the situation and steps were being taken.
“I have directed the GRDB [Guyana Rice Development Board] to investigate the matter notwithstanding the company’s pronouncement that the shipment was free of any impurities or fungi when it left Guyana. I have asked that the Colombians, US and the Latin American rice research system – FLAR – be involved,“ Persaud told Stabroek News.
Reuters said that the 1,064 tons of rice will be returned to Guyana following the discovery of a fungus which corresponds to the Tilletia type.
The same fungus, Reuters said, was detected in 5, 493 tons of rice originating from the United States. Fearing a possible spread of the fungus in their territory, Colombia immediately ordered the rice transported back to its source.
Colombia has the shipment aboard a vessel docked at port Barranquilla in an attempt to isolate what the report described as an “identified exotic disease”. These procedures were executed to avoid possible contamination of Colombia’s cereals.
“All the agricultural imports that enter Colombia are put under a process of quality control”, Reuters said. The fungus identified during this process corresponds to the Tilletia sort plague – a type of fungi which targets cereals. Controlling such a fungus would increase production costs and products would not be marketable if contaminated.
The General Manager of CFI, Jaime Cardenas Lopez, according to Reuters, said that it is the organization’s responsibility to ensure that imports do not put Colombia’s national rice production at risk. Hence, the infected shipment worth US$2.6 million is safely stored aboard a vessel at port Barranquilla.
Colombia in December approved a tender to import 75,000 tons of paddy at zero duty to reduce the cost of the product in the local market.
The local rice industry has been straining to cope with much lower international prices this year for rice.
Hope the GRDB did its due diligence and the problem is at the Colombian end.
This is no good for business, and exports.
if the fungus originate in Columbia. We should not let the product enter Guyana.
THEY WILL TAKE BACK THE SHIPMENT,SEND A FRESH ONE AND THEN THEY WILL MILL THE INFECTED PADDY INTO RICE FOR LOCAL CONSUMPTION
In this day and age? Some time ago the same thing happened with a shipment to Jamaica. The exporter reuse bags which had contained infected rice.
Let’s hope that more of Colombia’s No.1 product don’t come back hidden in the paddy.
we can only hope but nothing is surprising anymore- anything goes in Guyana!!1
I think that the intergranular water concentration in the exported paddy as expressed as water activity was in excess of 0.70 mV to 0.09 mV. Whether the elevated moisture concentration originated in Guyana or in Colombia is a matter to be determined by an investigation. Also, since molds can grow at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 50 degrees Celsius, it will be important to determine the transit temperature log of the paddy grains during shipment. It will be important to refer to the test results that were conducted in Guyana prior to the grains leaving to the South American destination. This is definitely catastrophic for the local rice industry and inter-regional trade.
Are we sure its fungus they detected….hahahahahaha.
More than likely JB. Afterall, there’s no sense in carrying sand to the beach…Now keep in mind that saying does not hold for the return trip.
…. makes scientific sense Falcon ,, temp control ,, and duration from point A to B ,, plus time from discharge to delivery ,, with the required storage temp while in bond b4 the fungus was observed !..
michael tannassee: Many things have changed in the way business is done internationally. Governments are made more accountable to its citizens and are required to ensure safe foods are imported in their countries. Preparing rice paddy for export to another country must be done on the basis of science. Since we know based on our knowledge in food microbiology the factors that are associated with mold growth, then it is only reasonable that we control those factors during processing. This will create an inhospitable environment for molds and other fungi and consequently influence food safety. I will submit that a HACCP approach to processing of rice paddy or other food products for export must be in place. Many countries demand that such a system is in place for foods that are imported. I hope that Guyana is on track…
Teh fungus was extra and we should have charged them for it. After all, who eats bare rice?
If the paddy is not properly dried or have a high moisture content, the heat generated in the ship’s hold will cause fungus to grow exponentially.
This very problems caused us to lose the Colombian market in the 90’s, when a still current GRDB functionary shipped freshly harvested and partially wet paddy from friends that generated fungus condemning the entire shipment. It seems like history repeating itself all over again when the industry can use all the help it can get.