GEORGETOWN, Guyana--General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Nizam Hassan has reported a 43 per cent increase in rice exports in the first half of the 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 than was exported during the first half of 2017,” he said on Thursday.
The increase has so far earned the country GYD $23.2 billion (US $111 million) this year against the value of the export for the first half of 2017 which was GYD $16.1 billion (US $77 million).
Hassan credited the increase to the determination of rice producers and millers to meet production targets and, more so, to Guyana’s access to new markets, particularly in Latin America.
“We’ve seen some significant increases in some of the blocks, for example, exports to Latin America jumped by 215 per cent [compared to – Ed.] the first half of 2017. We did 64,000 tonnes [in the first six months of last year – Ed.] as against 202,000-plus tonnes in the first half of 2018,” he said.
Standing out for exports were Mexico and Cuba taking a total of 133,000 tonnes – 45,000 and 88,000, respectively.
Approximately 99 per cent of the country’s rice lands cultivated have been harvested. For the first crop of 2018, approximately 508,000 tonnes of paddy was produced, equivalent to 330,000 tonnes of rice.
In preparation for the second crop for 2018, 86,660 hectares of land has been prepared with 76,500 hectares (86 per cent) sown. ~ Caribbean360 ~
