THREE weeks after the announcement of a major rice deal with Panama, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy disclosed that Guyana is nearing the conclusion of an agreement that will see the export of 120,000 tonnes of rice annually to a huge market in Africa.

Speaking at a press beefing yesterday he explained that the agreement will see the export of 10,000 tonnes of rice monthly at attractive prices. However, he declined to disclose the name of the market until the agreement is finalised.
“We have a negotiation going on with a group that wants to export the rice to what is a huge market in Africa. We are finalising those arrangements,” he said.
According to him, as Guyanese rice farmers continue to improve their yield, their cost of production would decrease, consequently their ability to compete at world markets would significantly increase.
“The higher the yield, the lower the cost of production and the more we can compete on the regular price markets…we have never competed at world market prices. We have sought to compete at above market and premium price markets, but we want to be able to compete at prices that are nearer the world market prices,” he said.

FIRST SHIPMENT
Additionally, he updated the media on the rice deal with Panama and stated that the first shipment is being prepared and the first monthly quota of 5,000 tonnes of rice will be supplied for September.
“The first shipment of packaged rice to Panama is being prepared. We have contracted the company that is doing the 20-kilogramme package,” he said.
Panama’s rice imports currently stand at 150,000 tonnes annually, an addition to their own rice production and the rice deal, which was signed by the Panama’s Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Estebana Giron Dias, and the GRDB General Manager, Mr. Jagnarine Singh, will see Guyana exporting 50,000 tonnes, of the 150,000 tonnes, to Panama.
Ramsammy said: “Panama itself is making arrangement for the container ships, because it is a Free on Board (FOB) arrangement. Panama is arranging its own shipping and we fully expect to meet the September shipment.
The remaining 100,000 tonnes, according to Dr. Ramsammy, can be supplied by Guyana’s private sector, since the two Governments agreed on levelling the playing field for Guyanese companies to be able to bid to supply the remaining tonnage. Presently, Panama’s private sector controls the local food market, making it an open market.

US SUPPLIERS REPLACED
On this note, the Agriculture Minister stated that Guyana’s private sector has been successful in competing with United States of America (USA) suppliers in Panama.
“Independently of the GRDB, the private sector is already shipping to Panama. They have earned contracts…outside of the 20,000 tonnes (5,000 tonnes a month) that Guyana will supply to the Government of Panama; the private sector is also expected to ship another 5,000 or so tonnes,” he said.
In totality, Guyana will see close to 30,000 tonnes of rice shipped to Panama.
Guyana has been increasing its share in traditionally USA markets, in particular in Jamaica and Haiti and the sector’s pundits contends that that dislodging the USA as a supplier to the Caribbean Region will be a major plus for the local rice industry.
At the end of January, the scope for this was underscored in an Oryza Global Rice Quotes report. A recognised information source on rice market trends, the report said the sole rice mill in Jamaica completely replaced the United States of America’s (USA) paddy rice with imports from Guyana in 2013. Also, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to the Oryza report, says that Jamaica did not import any paddy rice from the USA in 2013 for the first time in recent history. Traditionally, Jamaica’s rice imports consisted of 20 per cent of the USA paddy rice, but the share of USA paddy rice in Jamaica’s rice imports has been declining in the last five years. The USDA said Jamaica’s total rice import market remains steady at about 90,000 tons. However, the USA paddy rice imports by Jamaica declined by a whopping 93 per cent from around 46,000 tonnes in 2008 to 3,300 tons in 2012, and have vanished in 2013.
The Agriculture Minister maintains that Guyana has done an “excellent job” in recapturing the markets.
In addition to Venezuela: Guyana is making greater headway into the Haitian market, which was lost after the 2010 earthquake; Jamaica is increasing its rice imports; countries across the Caribbean and Europe are doing well; and Guyana is entering markets in Central America.
Dr. Ramsammy highlighted too that Guyana has already exported 300,000 tonnes of rice and the sector is expected to surpass the 450,000 tonnes export target.
“With the contracts signed and shipments to be made, we will pass 450,000 tonnes export target. We are likely to meet 475,000 tonnes or even 500,000 tonnes export,” he said, “We are currently working above world market prices and those are the markets we are in.”
Last year’s Guyana’s exports came in at 398,000 tonnes. The production for 2013 was 535,212 tonnes, which was far above the original target of 413,000 tonnes, and reflected a 27 per cent increase over the production in 2012. The average production per hectare is five tonnes.

(By Vanessa Narine)