Indian High Commissioner Dr KJ Srinivasa has said that a large quantity of rice was imported from India during 2021 by local businessmen in order to meet export commitments.
He made the revelation during a recent interview with the Stabroek News.
“In fact, last year when the interesting thing happened, if you see the Indian exports to Guyana, rice became a big export. What happened was there was some Guyanese businessman who needed to get rice from India [because] there was some shortfall somewhere in Brazil or something,” the High Commissioner disclosed.
During his 2022 budget presentation on January 26, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh said that due to the record-high rainfall observed in the first half of 2021 the rice industry was severely impacted. He informed the nation that the rice industry shrunk by 20.5% with total paddy production amounting to 859,993 tonnes, which resulted in 558,995 tonnes of rice being produced.
Additionally, earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha reported that Guyana’s rice industry raked in $42.2 billion (US$201 million) after exporting approximately 434,535 tons of rice. However, when asked whether he was aware of Guyana importing a large quantity of rice from India, the Agriculture Minister responded in the negative.
“I have no knowledge about that. We have enough rice, we exported rice so why would we import rice…? Why would we import rice from India? That is news to me,” Mustapha responded.
Head of the Guyana Rice Development Board Kuldip Ragnauth also said he was unaware of Guyana importing rice.
High Commissioner Srinivasa also told Stabroek News that he was unaware of where the shortfall came from but said that “we helped a few businessmen to get rice from India because they wanted to, you know, re-export rice somewhere else.”
“I was a bit surprised when the request came. So apparently they got the rice from Guyana, but that was not enough to supply their export commitments. So they got it from India and then they exported,” he added.
The High Commissioner noted that he was unable to provide the exact amount of rice imported and which businesses did. The Guyanese authorities also claim to be unaware of such imports.
