Guyana gets over $40B from January to October rice exports

Guyana has earned over $40 billion (US$194,310,882) in rice exports for the period January to October 2020, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) said Wednesday.

General Manager, Nizam Hassan told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the amount reflects a 12 per cent increase in volume and 10 per cent increase in value, when compared to the $37 billion sold for the same period last year.

“We continue to send product to all of our trading blocs. There has been an increase in the export to CARICOM for the same period —11 per cent increase in volume and 13 per cent increase in value,” Hassan said.

The CARICOM countries he referred to include Jamaica, Dominica, Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad. Almost 61,764 tonnes of rice were exported to those locations altogether, which raked in over US$31 million.

Jamaica has increased its purchase from last year, by 13 per cent. The country bought 29,258 tonnes of rice within the 10-month period, contributing about US$14,076,908 to Guyana.

Guyana has earned some US$79,423,317 million from exporting 215,637 tonnes of rice to the European Union for the January-October period. The chief contributor in that district is Portugal, which spent some US$29 million for approximately 78,621 tonnes of rice.

For Latin American countries including Colombia, Haiti, El Salvador and Venezuela, 193,167 tonnes of rice was shipped from January to October this year, compared to 177,949 tonnes for the same period in 2019. That group contributed almost US$28 million.

While 453 tonnes of rice was shipped to the United States for January to October 2019, 3,624 tonnes were requested this year for the same period.

GRDB’s statistics show that sale to the US this year has increased 699 per cent in volume and 747 per cent in value, when compared to 2019. (DPI)