MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record rice crop in Uruguay: 1.65 million tons but farmers concern with prices

Harvesting in the rice paddies to the east of the country

Uruguay harvested a record crop of rice this year totalling 1.65 million tons and marked the second highest area planted with the cereal, 195.000 hectares compared to the 200.000 of eleven years ago.

“The average yield was 8.400 kilos per hectare and was quite homogenous through out the different areas of the country”, said Ernesto Stirling president of Uruguay’s Association of Rice Cultivators, ACA.

Rice was planted at the end of September to the north of the country and in October and early November to the east of Uruguay. Harvesting in the north began at the end of February and on March 15 to the east, with the whole crop finished by early May.

“The harvesting was longer than expected because we had to face a labour conflict at the rice mills which caused disruptions for almost sixty days”, said Striling

However “we had some quality problems but overall the weather helped and we didn’t suffer much loss” added the president of rice farmers. But what really is concerning farmers “are rising costs particularly in Uruguayan pesos, since our income is basically measured in US dollars”.

Uruguay exports over 95% of its annual crop and “prices have been flat for the last three years averaging 500 US dollars the ton; it’s the only cereal whose price has not increased. If we hadn’t had such a good crop our profit margin would have been zero”, warned Stirling.

He added that Uruguayan  farmers harvest quality rice, “and we virtually use no agro-chemicals and have an environment friendly policy”.

Uruguay’s main markets for rice are Iran, Peru, Iraq and the European Union.