43% increase in rice export!

The increase has so far earned the country GYD$23.2Billion

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, July 18, 2018

As the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) wraps up its 2018 first crop results from January to June, results show an export volume increase of 87,000 tonnes as compared to the same period last year. This was revealed by the General Manager, Nizam Hassan.

“When we look at the figures compared to the first half of 2017, we saw first that the total volume that has been exported is 290,000 tonnes which is 43 percent more than the 203,000 tonnes than was exported during the first half of 2017,” Hassan said.

General Manager of GRDB, Nizam Hassan.

The increase has so far earned the country GYD$23.2Billion (US$111Million) this year against the value of the export for the first half of 2017 which was GYD$16.1Billion (US$77Million).

The General Manager credited the increase to the determination of rice producers and millers to meet production targets and more so Guyana’s access to new markets, particularly in Latin America.

“We’ve seen some significant increases in some of the blocks, for example, exports to Latin America jumped by 215 percent. In the first half of 2017. We did 64,000 tonnes as against 202,000+ tonnes in the first half of 2018.”

Standing out for exports was Mexico and Cuba taking a total of 133,000 tonnes, 45,000 and 88,000 respectively. Both countries did not take during the January to June exports of 2017.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo facilitated access to the Mexico market.

The above mentioned comes as approximately 99 percent of the country’s rice lands cultivated having been harvested. For the first crop of 2018, approximately 508,000 tonnes of paddy has been produced equivalent to 330,000 tonnes of rice.

The harvest update:

Region Sown Harvested Paddy (Metric Tonnes) Percent
2 13,484   .4 13,483   .5 79,661.4 100
3 8,082.7 8,009.6 44,030.6 99.1
4 3,461.4 3,460.8 24,064.5 100
5 39,462.40 38,664.30 228,214.77 98
6 22,928 22,745.40 130,899.62 99.2
9 120 120 903.72 100
Total 87,538.93 86,483.66 507,774.62 98.8

In preparation for the second crop for 2018, 86,660 hectares of land has been prepared with 76,500 hectares (86 percent) sown.

By: Stephon Gabriel.

CATEGORIES
TAGS