– Ramsammy says this market must be encouraged
ANOTHER 5,000 tonnes of rice was shipped to Venezuela over the weekend and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy says Guyana must continue to encourage and build this new market. The minister visited the John Fernandes wharf Saturday where the rice was being loaded for shipment to the neighbouring country.
“We will work personally with counterparts in Venezuela, the Guyana Rice Development Board, the Rice Producers Association and rice millers and farmers to ensure the Venezuela market grows and becomes well entrenched,” Ramsammy said.
For this year, Guyana has already shipped more than 153,000 metric tonnes of rice to Venezuela; at the moment, Venezuela is the largest importer of rice from Guyana.
The rice trade agreement between Guyana and neighbouring Venezuela continues with a fourth consecutive agreement worth US$54.3M for the supply of 50,000 tonnes of paddy and 20,000 tonnes of white rice with immediate effect.
This last agreement was to the tune of some US$48M for the export of 30,000 tonnes of white rice and 50,000 tonnes of paddy to the neighbouring country, at US$800 and US$480 per metric tonnes, respectively.
According to the minister, Venezuela has imported the largest amount of Guyana rice for 2011. With this latest shipment, Venezuela would have bought almost 160,000 tonnes of rice from Guyana.
Other importing countries include Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the European Union (EU).
Ramsammy said for the year, Jamaica has imported almost 46,000 tonnes and Trinidad and Tobago more than 20,000 tonnes of Guyana rice, while the EU has imported almost 50,000 tonnes.
Ramsammy stressed that Guyana is on track with its production target.
He pointed out that Guyana produced more than 400,000 tonnes of rice in 2010 and is on track to surpass this amount in 2011.
“So far for 2011, Guyana has earned more than US$157M in rice exports, and this year is likely to see a record in revenue from rice exports.”
According to him, moves are being made by the ministry to engage stakeholders to encourage and promote rice cultivation during this crop season.
Ramsammy said, “We have been working with the relevant authorities to ensure conditions are appropriate to allow rice farmers to complete land preparation and to begin the sowing exercise.”
Ongoing interventions include cleaning of important canals for irrigation purposes in Region 3 (Essequibo Islands/ West Demerara) and the expenditure of more than $3M for fuel for the Dawa pump in Region 2 (Pomeroon/ Supenaam) to pump water into the irrigation system to compensate for the low rainfall levels in the region. 
The minister said, “Rice exports for the year so far have exceeded 277,000 tonnes and have earned Guyana more than US$157M so far for 2011.”
Rice exports earnings for the year grew  by 35.5 per cent to US$154.6 million when compared with last year, mainly because of a 28.9 percent increase in export volume to 336,313 tonnes, coupled with a 5.1 percent increase in average export prices above those in 2010.