MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Guyana's rice exports back on track thanks to Gov't help

“We now have close to about 42 countries where we are exporting rice,” Mustapha said

Guyana's exports for the year 2021 of approximately 434,535 tons of rice, paddy, and its by-products meant US $ 201 million in revenues, according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, after new export markets such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as well as Estonia and Slovenia were added to the list of buyers.

In 2021 Guyana was also able to solidify a standard rice supply agreement with sister-country, Barbados, to ensure that the island nation has a steady supply, which heralds an even wider space for industry growth in 2022, Mustapha said.

“We now have close to about 42 countries where we are exporting rice and we are looking to improve on that,” the minister was quoted as saying by the government’s Department of Public Information (DPI).

Rice's contribution to ”Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could be seen as yet another demonstration of resilience from Guyana’s agriculture sector, as several industries and sub-sectors were able to bounce back from not only the ongoing impact of a global pandemic, but also months of devastating floods which destroyed thousands of acres of farmlands,“ the Guyana Chronicle reported as it praised the government-sponsored initiatives which reached thousands of farmers and which included financial assistance for rice farmers to “get back on their feet,” in addition to round-the-clock drainage and irrigation support as well as assistance with critical supplies such as seed paddy and fertilizers, among other things.

”The support from the government has already had a direct impact on the first rice crop for 2022, since the majority of farmers across the country have managed to move ahead with sowing their lands. National sowing projections for the year stand at an overall target of 227,240 acres, and authorities are hoping that this crop would see a notably better harvest, as compared to last year,” the Chronicle went on.

Prior to the floods, even during the onset of the pandemic, Guyana’s rice earnings stood at US$236.2 million more than G$51 billion. This was earned from the exportation of 574,312 tonnes of paddy, rice and rice by-products during 2020.

(Source: Guyana Chronicle)