MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay expects record rice harvest and yield

Uruguay rice harvest is expected to reach a record yield of 8.000 kilos per hectare, among the highest in the world announced Sunday Tabare Aguirre, president of the country's Rice Growers Association.

Uruguay is spite of its limited area, 176.000 square kilometers is among the world's ten leading exporters of rice, and among the short list of top quality rice exporters. Uruguay exports almost 90% of its production. The 2007/08 rice harvest was officially launched Sunday in the extreme north of the country, an area where this season 37.095 hectares were planted compared to the 28.710 of last year. Uruguay's vice president Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Agriculture minister Ernesto Agazzi and Industry minister Daniel Martinez were present at the ceremony. The northeast of Uruguay represents 21.6% of the total area with rice in the country which is in the range of 180.000 hectares with an average annual crop ranging between 960.000 and 1.200.000 tons. The other rice areas are in the centre of the country with an area less than the northeast and the east which usually plants over 100.000 hectares. The record yield and possibly record crop comes at a very advantageous moment for Uruguay since rice prices have doubled in the last six months. "This year's prices will be better than those of 1998, but we must keep working hard and be prepared for adversities, as has happened in the past, when international prices drop", said Aguerre. Rice overtook wheat as Uruguay's most important cereal crop in the 1980s. Since then, the rice harvested area has increased from 55.000 ha to almost 200.000 ha. Production is very homogeneous, with more than 90% of plantings composed of two varieties of long grain rice. The preferred rice farming system is closely linked to raising livestock: after two years of rice production, the land is sown as pasture for four to six years in order to renew the fields and provide grazing for cattle. This production system is highly sustainable, with only minimal requirements for herbicide, insecticide and fertilizer. Another peculiar characteristic of rice-farming in Uruguay is the strong role of the national Rice Growers Association, which represents all rice farmers and negotiates prices directly with the country's Union of Rice Mills.