FROM the 2012 spring/first crop, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represented some 66 percent of total rice export from Guyana, but the Rice Producers Association (RPA), though having an even larger crop this season, has not yet

managed to ink contractual arrangements with the Venezuelan market.
The RPA believes that this has to do primarily with the death of the country’s President Hugo Chavez, the presidential elections, and the subsequent swearing in of the Venezuela Cabinet.
RPA General Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj hosted a press conference at Red House, in Kingston, yesterday, along with other RPA members and farmers of Regions 3 and 5. General Manager of Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Jagnarine Singh was also present.
Guyana and Venezuela started to look at the contract since last December and arrangements were about to be concluded in March. As the team from Guyana was about to depart, however, President Hugo Chavez died.
The terms and conditions of the agreement have been sorted out and the RPA is optimistic that the contract will be signed in the first week of May. The RPA is not in a hurry to export their produce to other countries, as Venezuela is a high-quality market that pays a good price.
Seeraj informed that the RPA has brought this situation to President Donald Ramotar’s attention and Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkette has been following up on a daily basis with her counterparts in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, providing an update on the current situation of the rice industry across Guyana, Seeraj said the first crop is the largest one and the hectares cultivated is 81, 628, which is equivalent to just under 200,000 acres.
Harvesting is about 70 percent complete, and so far, about 4.6 million bags of paddy have been harvested. In a normal season, just about four million bags would be harvested.
For last year’s first crop, 74,408 hectares was planted, which was just about 184,000 acres. Yield for last year was 4.4 tons per hectare.
For this season so far, the average yield is just about 5.4 tons per hectare. “So we have seen here immediately that for this crop, our acreage planting has increased by ten percent and the yields have also increased by 23 percent,” Seeraj noted.
Export to date is 61,442 metric tons valued at US $35.1M. The export at the end of April 2012 was 70, 991 metric tons, which was valued at US $43.5M.
Meanwhile, in Region 2, so far, 87 percent of the crop has been harvested and the average yield there is 5.4 tons per hectare. In Region 3, 82 percent has been harvested and the yields at 5.6 tons per hectare. In Region 4, 79 percent of acreage planted has been harvested. The yield there is 6.5 tons per hectare.
In Region 5, almost 45 percent of the crop is still to be harvested and what has been harvested so far gave a yield of 5.5 tons per hectare.
In Region 6, 77 percent of the acreage sown have been harvested so far, with an average yield of 4.9 tons.