GEORGETOWN – Guyana says it will make its first shipment of rice to Cuba in September following a series of negotiations over the past few months, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) has announced.
GRDB general manager Allison Peters said this is just one of the new export markets negotiated over the past months.
“There is also a shipment off to Cuba and we are going to start that off in the third week of September<’ she said, adding “we have started sending paddy to Panama for this year; we have started in … early July.”
Guyana has started exporting paddy to Mexico under a US$17.7 million deal.
“Well so far to Mexico more than one shipment has been sent, I think three shipments have been sent so far totalling over 35 000 tonnes and more shipments are expected to go,” the general manager said.
Peters said that another contract is expected to be signed within the next few weeks for the exportation of paddy to Panama. She said, since the country is now securing more rice markets, the product must be increased to meet these new demands.
Paddy production for the first crop of 2017 was recorded at 518 667 metric tonnes and the authorities here project that rice production will increase by 1.3 per cent in 2017. (CMC)
