By no means a big player’ in the global rice industry, Guyana continues to be self-sufficient in what is one of the world’s most strategically important food commodities. Setting that aside, the country’s rice sector continues to enjoy lucrative markets in the Caribbean and further afield in the hemisphere.
The sense of stability that informs the pursuits of the rice industry here in Guyana is a far cry from the sense of jitteriness that comes across in reporting on the sector, globally. There are valid reasons for this. The most recent international reports on the rice industry published recently points to unease insofar as the gap between rice production and demand is concerned. Two factors, particularly, influence that circumstance. The first is that the governments of the ‘big players’ in the global rice industry, including India, China and Vietnam, must balance their rice exports against the food needs of their own, already large and continually growing populations. India ranks second, behind China among the ‘heavy hitters’ in the global rice industry and its recent partial ban on exports by roughly a fifth, may well have significantly accentuated threat levels insofar as global food security is concerned, having regard to Russia’s earlier cessation of an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export wheat.
Another ‘big player’ in the global rice industry, Vietnam, has raised its export prices, reportedly to a 15-year high, further intensifying the pre-existing unease among countries and famine relief organizations that are depending heavily on rice supplies from Asia to, in many instances, stave off starvation. Mindful of the need to balance rice exports against the food needs of its enormous population, India, has signaled its intention to take precautionary measures. Several weeks ago the government in Delhi declared that it would ban some rice shipments, this, in an effort by the world’s most populous nation to control domestic prices. Such a decision is likely to leave a yawning 9.5 million metric tonnes (10.4 tons) gap in exports to countries that are heavily dependent on rice as a staple food. Prior to the implementation of the export restrictions, countries were reportedly already buying rice in anticipation of scarcity, down the road.
Whilst rice shortages in the Caribbean are relatively rare and can, for extended periods be alleviated by alternative foods, not so in other countries where consumer dependence on the grain as a staple food is high. Rice consumption in Africa, has reportedly been growing steadily, with most countries in that region being heavily dependent on imports. Around 70% of rice imported in parts of Africa come from India. Ninety per cent of the world’s rice is cultivated and eaten in Asia.
