As Guyana keeps pushing for a formal agreement with Mexico to export rice there, Head of the Millers Association, Peter deGroot is not anticipating any progress before the first crop of 2016.
He told Stabroek News in a recent interview that the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) was in the preliminary stages of engagement with the Mexican Government. He noted that he was unable to discuss prices and quantities of expected exports to Mexico as those issues have not even been addressed as yet. Mexico is one of the markets being sought in the wake of the ending of the lucrative Venezuelan arrangement where rice was bartered for fuel under the PetroCaribe deal.
deGroot said that Mexico has imported rice from the United States and as a result the country will need to work with their current phytosanitary requirements and Guyana will need to comply. He said that because of these circumstances the GRDB, and by extension, millers will need to