ALIMPORT Representatives pay Courtesy Call on Minister of Business
Two Representatives of ALIMPORT- Division of Grains, Mr. Reynaldo Aguirre Labora (Project Lead) and Ms. Maria Cristina Ramos Perdomo (Technical Specialist), paid a courtesy call on Minister Dominic Gaskin at his office recently.
During the meeting Minister Gaskin made enquiries about opportunities for other products from Guyana to be exported to Cuba. ALIMPORT’s Representatives indicated that there is a huge demand for frozen chicken in Cuba and that they are exploring the possibility of sourcing from Guyana to meet those demands.
Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin and ALIMPORT Representatives.
The company’s officials who are visiting Guyana to conduct inspections of Nand Persaud’s facilities reported to the Minister that they are quite satisfied with the quality of rice produced as well as the overall quality of the production process.
ALIMPORT is a Cuban state owned company with more than 50 years’ experience executing foreign trade transactions related to the import of food products, raw materials, and other consumer goods for wholesale marketing. On July 24, 2017, Guyanese Rice producer Nand Persaud and Company Limited entered a contract with ALIMPORT to supply 15,000MT of rice initially.
Their certification of the quality of the rice paves the way for Nand Persaud to send its first shipment of rice to Cuba this week. Through the development and adoption of regionally and internationally accepted standards the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) is facilitating businesses to trade across borders with greater ease.
There currently exists a draft Guyana Standard -Rice Specification which establishes requirements for grades of paddy, cargo rice, milled rice, parboiled rice and milled parboiled rice. It also specifies the general conditions for sampling and the methodologies for assessing the various factors used in the determination of the quality of rice. Consultations are ongoing to make the standard (Guyana adopted the Caricom Rice Standard in 2014) compulsory.
Mr. Ashish Khandage, Business Development Manager of Nand Persaud accompanied the duo to meet with Minister Gaskin.