…GRDB explains reasons for rejection of shipment
ASSURANCE has been given by General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), Nizam Hassan, that there is no threat to the lucrative market for Guyana’s rice. This assurance comes amidst claims of local rice being rejected by Trinidad then being shipped to Panama. This resulted in the Latin American country refusing 20 containers of rice from more than 100 because it contained the incorrect commodity.
“With regards to the effect, basically the buyer said ‘no, this is not what we want; it cannot come; so take it back and send us back our rice.’ We will have to replace the rice that was not received. The authorities understand it is a contract between the GRDB and the Institute of Agricultural Marketing in Panama; they know that the GRDB itself is not a producer of rice,” Hassan explained
In addition, Hassan said he has no knowledge of the rice being previously rejected by Trinidad and repackaged for the Panamanian market. “We have no information of rice being shipped to Trinidad and being returned to Guyana. When rice leaves here we would have all the documents and if returned, plant quarantine would have been involved. We have no information of this happening,” Hassan told the Department of Public Information (DPI).
Further, the GRDB head said there is an ongoing investigation to determine whether or not there was a deliberate effort to deceive on the part of millers or it was a genuine operational error. “We are still investigating to identify whether it was an operational issue or whether it was a deliberate effort. I cannot comment on that because the investigation is in progress. If it was an operational issue, because from our reports thus far, the miller is using this packaging facility that bags and packages white rice and parboiled rice using the same line. However, we have only just received photos saying this is what we found. It does not necessarily mean that an entire container has parboiled rice; it may have been a few bags,” the GRDB head explained.
According to Hassan, systems have now been strengthened to prevent a recurrence of any similar situation. “Let me say that all systems have been heightened with regards to inspections, quality control checks with respect to shipments to this buyer; that’s the first thing.” Guyana exported some 540,000 tonnes of rice for 2017, which saw its highest numbers since 2015 when a total of 535,000 tonnes were recorded. The GRDB is the agency responsible for certifying rice being shipped from Guyana to overseas markets. (DPI)
Meanwhile, back in July, GRDB disclosed that results from the first rice crop of 2018–January to June– show an export volume increase of 87,000 tonnes as compared to the same period last year. “When we look at the figures compared to the first half of 2017, we saw first that the total volume that has been exported is 290,000 tonnes which is 43 per cent more than the 203,000 tonnes that was exported during the first half of 2017,” Hassan had said. The increase at that point had earned the country GYD$23.2Billion (US$111Million) this year against the value of the export for the first half of 2017 which was GYD$16.1Billion (US$77Million).
The general manager attributed the increase to the determination of rice producers and millers to meet production targets and more so Guyana’s access to new markets, particularly in Latin America. “We’ve seen some significant increases in some of the blocs. For example, exports to Latin America jumped by 215 per cent. In the first half of 2017, we did 64,000 tonnes as against 202,000+ tonnes in the first half of 2018.” Standing out for exports was Mexico and Cuba, taking a total of 133,000 tonnes–45,000 and 88,000– respectively. Both countries did not take during the January to June exports of 2017.
