Private sector investment of more than $1.5 billion in key machinery and equipment for the rice industry in 2013 contributed significantly to an overall yield of more than 500,000 tonnes this year, according to Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager Jagnarine Singh.
Still buoyed by this year’s impressive rice production figures, Singh told Stabroek Business that the returns from the industry could not be separated from either the incentive of higher rice prices being secured from Venezuela under the PetroCaribe agreement or the sustained investment in the sector by both local and overseas investors,
Statistics produced by the GRDB indicate for that this year alone investors expended more than $878 million in tractors and around $580 million in combines. Last year, the sector acquired 232 tractors valued at $928 million and 30 combines valued at around $120 million. Between 2010 and the current time the more than 7,000 investors in the
