ALIMPORT, the Cuban rice importing agency, has agreed to purchase 30,000 metric tonnes of rice from Guyana for the period July-September 2019, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager, Nizam Hassan, said.

Hassan said loading operations have commenced in Georgetown.

Ambassador to Cuba, Halim Majeed, said this achievement by the government is the result of intense negotiations between the Guyana Embassy in Cuba and the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade.

The collaboration, he said, is also between MINCEX and ALIMPORT which started in December 2018 and continued throughout the past several months with support from Nand Persaud Group of Companies, A. Cayume Hakh and Sons (ACHS) and GBTI.

On May 3, 2019, Minister Counsellor, Heather Seelochan, and Ambassador Halim Majeed met with Jose Chaple and Jesus Gonzalez from the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment (MINCEX) and Alejandro Mustalier, President of ALIMPORT, to continue discussions on a government-to-government rice agreement. It was at this meeting that consensus was reached for Cuba to continue purchasing rice from Guyana.

Guyana re-commenced rice exports to Cuba in 2017. In 2017, Guyana exported 15,512 metric tonnes to Cuba and 44,948 metric tonnes in 2018. The hope this year is to exceed the previous year’s exports.

Ambassador Majeed has been in on-going discussion with MINCEX to develop a government-to-government rice agreement that would give Guyana preferential and guaranteed access to the Cuban rice market which requires between 400,000 and 500,000 metric tonnes of rice annually.