Amid concerns about this country’s ability to meet Jamaica’s rice needs, Guyana expects to supply approximately 60,000 metric tonnes of the product to Jamaica this year.
This is according to a statement on Friday from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, which has noted several reports in the media concerning the supply of rice to Jamaica.
That Caribbean country had expressed its intention to apply for a waiver of the CET on rice enabling them to import extra-regionally, particularly from the United States. The Ministry said that an amount of 30,000 metric tonnes is already committed to that market from the current rice crop, of which 4,000 metric tonnes was supplied during the month of April.
“From our records we are not aware of any Jamaican exporter who is unable to obtain rice from Guyana. The two countries continue to collaborate closely to ensure that the trade is conducted smoothly,” said the statement from the Ministry.
“The Caricom market is an important one for Guyana and we have always supported a waiver of the CET to Jamaica whenever local supplies were not available for export,” the statement said.
“Because of the low stocks in Guyana, in December 2007, we supported the waiver of the CET on 15,200 tonnes of white rice and 2,400 tonnes of parboiled rice for the period January 1st, 2008 to March 15, 2008. We nevertheless supplied 1,600 mt, 732 mt and 1,335 mt respectively during the months of January, February and March,” the press statement said.
The Ministry said that Guyana is well aware of the problems associated with the rising cost of food supplies. “Thus, with respect to price, Guyana’s rice exports to Caricom throughout 2007 and currently, compare favour-ably to prevailing world market prices and is much lower than the open market price for US rice,” the Ministry’s statement said.
