Sales to Europe up 32.8%: Venezuela bought 15,836 metric tons of paddy in first quarter

Guyana’s rice exports for the first half of 2010 recorded a 26.5 per cent rise over the corresponding period last year due mainly to a significant boost in sales to European Union (EU) countries, according to the June 2010 commodity markets update issued by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Rice exports up to June this year reached 157,234 metric tons compared with 124,277 metric tons over the same period last year.

The increase in export tonnage meant that total earnings from rice exports during the first half of 2010 increased from US$59.4m during the first half of 2009 to US$68.5m.

The official commodity market update attributes the increase in overseas rice sales primarily to greater volumes of exports to EU countries between January and June. Overall, rice sales to Europe recorded a reported 38.2 per cent increase, the equivalent of 23,000 metric tons.  During the first half of this year Guyana increased its rice exports to Belgium by 250 per cent while rice was exported to Germany during the first half of this year following zero exports to that country in 2009.

The commodity update also attributes the growth in rice exports to “the dedicated work of the Guyana Rice Board (GRDB) to sustain current markets while securing new markets.” During the first six months of 2010 rice sales to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries reached 8,000 metric tons, an increase of 18 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

Meanwhile, local rice exports in the Other Countries category increased by 11 per cent during the first half of this year, an achievement attributed primarily to the creation of a new market in neighbouring Venezuela where 15,836 metric tonnes of paddy were imported between January and June 2010. However, rice exports to OCT countries declined during the first half of this year, a circumstance which the commodity update says was due to a decline in rice exports to Aruba resulting from an elimination of the previously existing preferential market in this country.

The local rice industry continues to face ongoing instability resulting from a poor record of payment by millers to farmers for paddy sold to them and persistent official protests by the farmers over millions of dollars in outstanding payments. This  led to the tabling of legislation in the National Assembly by Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud last week seeking to bring a measure of relief to the aggrieved farmers. The Rice Factory (Amend-ment) Bill seeks to amend the Rice Factories Act of 1998. Passage of the Amendment in parliament will compel local rice millers to submit to the GRDB, annually, security deposits to guarantee payments for paddy as a condition for being granted licences to operate in the industry. The provisions of the proposed amendment empower the GRDB to utilize part of that security deposit to make outstanding payments to farmers in cases where payments are not made within sixty days of the paddy being supplied.

Two amendments to the Rice Factories Act, in 1998 and again in 2007 have failed to provide protection for rice farmers against protracted payment delays though frustration over late payment has not prevented the industry from exceeding its production target for the first half of the current year. According to the recent Commodity Market Update actual rice production for the January – June, 2010 period  reached 188,287 metric tons, 8.4 per cent higher than the budgeted 155,262 metric tons. Rice production for the second half of the year is forecast at 188,111 metric tons.