-Vessel will leave for Mexico in four days
The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), on Friday, officially began loading the first batch of paddy that will be shipped to Mexico at the John Fernandez Wharf.
The shipment is part of the US$17.7m (G3.8B) Guyana-Mexico rice export agreement inked in March 2017. The Mexico-Guyana Rice agreement was brokered by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder.
Head of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Allison Peters explained that this first vessel is “taking 17,000” of the 60,000 tonnes of paddy that will be shipped to Mexico, over the next two months. The vessel will leave for Mexico in four days’ time Peters said, “once there is good weather.”
The Government has been upping efforts, through the diplomatic processes to find new international markets for rice. Following a visit to Mexico by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo in 2015, GRBD sent a team to the Central American country earlier this year as part of government’s efforts to expand exports. Another trip is planned shortly.
Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder in an earlier interview had noted that the government is, “not only seeking to secure new markets, but markets that will offer premium price for the local grain.” The minister had noted that the Guyana-Mexico rice agreement represents the first new destination for Guyana’s rice.
Guyana’s rice industry has recorded a paddy production of half a million metric tonnes for the first crop in 2017. Rice and paddy consumption in Mexico exceeds one million tons per year and the Central American country imports more than 80 per cent of its grains.
