$40B in rice exports recorded from January to October 2020

The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) said Guyana has earned over $40 billion in rice exports for the period January to October 2020.
General Manager, Nizam Hassan in a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Wednesday stated 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 in 2019.
“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 noted.
The Caricom countries he referred to include Jamaica, Dominica, Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad.
Almost 61,764 tonnes of rice was exported to those countries and would have raked in over US$31 million.
During the interview, it was revealed that Jamaica has increased its purchase from 2019, by 13 per cent.
The country, Hassan noted, has 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 2020, 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 from January to October 2019, 3624 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.