NINETY-five per cent of all monies owed farmers for the last crop have to be fully paid before rice millers can qualify to supply the Venezuela market, according to Deputy General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Ricky Ramraj.As per the most recent agreement, exports to the neighbouring country will include 120,000 tonnes of paddy and 74,000 tonnes of rice.

Another important pre-requisite, he said in an invited comment yesterday, is that millers interested in supplying the neighbouring country with rice and paddy must be paying rice farmers some $3,000 per bag of paddy.
“These are the two important prerequisites; 95 per cent of their debts to farmers must be settled and they must be paying farmers $3,000 a bag,” Ramraj said.
He added that already, a shipment of 6,000 tonnes of paddy has left Guyana.
“We have another vessel that will ship 5,760 metric tonnes of rice next week and another ship that will be here this weekend to take 6,000 tonnes of paddy,” the GRDB Deputy General Manager said.
Ramraj disclosed too that some 42 rice millers are currently involved in supplying the export quota for Venezuela.
By the end of the month, it is expected that some 30,000 tonnes of rice will be exported to Venezuela.
Guyana currently has export agreements with several countries in the Caribbean. Also, given the continuous success of the rice industry, efforts are being made to secure a greater foothold in Nicaragua and other Central American countries, including Belize and Panama. Markets in Africa are also being courted.
All considered, the Agriculture Minister stated that the first four months of 2015 have represented a record four months of exports.
The target for exports in 2015 is some 514,000 tonnes, which the target for rice production is 618,000 tonnes.
Last year was another record-breaking year for the rice industry. Production was recorded at 635,238 tonnes, of which 501,208 tonnes were exported. Production in the final crop of 2014 surpassed that of the first crop, which recorded just over 300,000 tonnes.(Vanessa Narine)