Guyana’s rice exports to rise by 50,000 tonnes

-pressure still on to find new markets, better prices

Consolidation of traditional markets in the hemisphere and in Europe and the realization of new ones  have meant that Guyana will boost its rice exports this year by more than 50,000 tonnes over 2013, General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Jagnarine Singh has told the Stabroek Business.

Earlier this week Singh disclosed that rice exports were likely to reach 450,000 tonnes at the end of this year compared with 396,000 tonnes in 2013. However, the GRDB boss said that global competition had meant that “prices are not where we would like them to be.” He said that the GRDB wanted farmers to get the best prices for their rice but that the industry had to deal with “the realities of the market.”

Singh disclosed that recent initiatives had resulted in the emergence of modest but promising first–time markets in Belize and Belgium where orders for 2,000 tonnes and 3,000 tonnes, respectively, had been secured. Meanwhile, Singh said that the local industry had secured an order from Costa Rica for a “test shipment” of one million 20-kg bags of rice from Guyana.

GRDB General Manager  Jagnarine Singh
GRDB General Manager
Jagnarine Singh

Singh reported that Guyana’s rice sales to Europe and the Caribbean had also been “upped.” In the region he named Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as countries from which Guyana can anticipate increased rice purchases while           Holland, Portugal and Belgium have been named as countries in Europe where markets are expected to expand,

Singh told Stabroek Business, however, that low prices and increased yield meant that Guyana was required to sell even more rice in order to buttress the viability of the industry.

This year, Guyana is expected to     realize a rice yield of around 600,000 tonnes compared with 535,555, tonnes last year.

Guyana, meanwhile, is looking to what Singh told Stabroek Business were “very promising markets” in Central America and Africa as avenues for exporting higher volumes of the additional rice which the country was now producing. He said that while increased production continued to pose a greater marketing challenge, it was preferable for the rice industry to be in a condition of excess supply.

Asked about the state of Guyana’s US$150 million PetroCaribe rice contract with Venezuela under which Guyana’s western neighbour now imports around 30 per cent of its rice crop, Singh said that the local rice industry continues to benefit significantly from the PetroCaribe arrangement though he added that efforts to expand sales to other markets both inside and outside the hemisphere reflected Guyana’s concern that the rice industry not become locked into a “one-market scenario.”

This year, Guyana is expected to supply Venezuela with 150,000 tonnes of paddy and 50,000 tonnes of rice under the PetroCaribe contract.