CONTAMINATED RICE - No word yet on independent analysis

CONTAMINATED RICE – No word yet on independent analysis

Apr 07, 2009 News

…but was shipped to same port as
contaminated shipment from USA

There has been no update as yet from the independent analysis of the 1,000 tonnes of paddy that was shipped to Colombia from Guyana that was found to be contaminated but this newspaper has learnt that the paddy was taken to the same port as the contaminated shipments from the USA.
This revelation will undoubtedly reaffirm Guyana’s position that the paddy was contaminated in Colombia.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, recently told this newspaper that he has called for an independent investigation as it relates to the 1,000 tonnes of local paddy that was exported to Colombia and found to be contaminated with “an identified exotic disease.”
According to Persaud, he has since written to the Agriculture Minister of Colombia lodging a mild protest given that the information available to him suggests that the rice may have been contaminated on arrival in Colombia hence the call for an independent investigation.
According to Persaud it is always difficult breaking into a new market and he has informed the Colombians that he is willing to have a Guyanese delegation travel there to resolve the issue.
Saj Rice Mills (SRM) shipped the rice from Guyana.
When the news first broke the local Agriculture Minister had said that, “I have directed the GRDB [Guyana Rice Development Board] to investigate the matter notwithstanding the company’s pronouncement that the shipment was free of any impurities or fungi when it left Guyana.
I have asked that the Colombians, US and the Latin American rice research system – FLAR – be involved.”
Reuters had reported that the 1,064 tonnes of rice would be returned to Guyana following the discovery of a fungus, which corresponds, to the Tilletia type.
The same fungus, Reuters said, was detected in 5,493 tons of rice originating from the United States.
Shipments have also been barred from Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru
Fearing a possible spread of the fungus in their territory, Colombia immediately ordered the rice transported back to its source.
Colombia has the shipment aboard a vessel docked at Port Barranquilla in an attempt to isolate what the report described as an “identified exotic disease.”
The procedures were executed to avoid possible contamination of Colombia’s cereals.
“All the agricultural imports that enter Colombia are put under a process of quality control,” Reuters said.
The fungus identified during this process corresponds to the Tilletia sort plague – a type of fungi that targets cereals – and controlling such fungi would increase production costs, and products would not be marketable if contaminated.