Guyana strikes lucrative US$35M rice deal with Venezuela

Jul 25, 2010 News

– mulls buying fertilizers too

By Leonard Gildarie

Guyana has sealed another major rice deal with neighbouring Venezuela for US$35M, significantly increasing the amount to be shipped there for the next year.

According to the agreement signed last week between Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, and his counterpart, Felix Osorio, Venezuela’s Minister of People’s Power For Food, some 50,000 tonnes of paddy and 20,000 tonnes white rice, to the tune of US$35M, will have to be shipped within the next year.

Rice packed for a previous shipment.

The agreement will also explore the possibility of shipping other food products from Guyana to that country.

With rice prices low on the world market, the Venezuela deal has been tagged as highly lucrative because of the preferential prices.

Contacted yesterday, Minister Persaud disclosed that Guyana had been eyeing the Venezuela market even more closely since the historic deal last year was signed between the two countries.

That rice deal, worth, almost US$18M, was for 35,000 tonnes of paddy and 10,000 tonnes of white rice.

More than 75 per cent of that deal has already been shipped to Venezuela, officials confirmed yesterday.

Venezuela, earlier this year, agreed to raise the price following fresh negotiations.

With shipments from Guyana taking as little as five days, Venezuela had been more than happy for rice from this country.

This last agreement was signed last week after a high level delegation led by President Bharrat Jagdeo visited the neighbouring country. Included in the delegation were Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett; Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee; Minister Persaud, and Director General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elisabeth Harper.

According to President Jagdeo on Friday, Guyana is exploring the possibilities of shipping fertilizers, including urea, from Venezuela.

While Venezuela had been experiencing a fertilizer shortage there, the reality is that prices are much cheaper and there is an opportunity for Guyana there, the President said.

In June, Government in an attempt to entice rice millers and exporters, had met with several of them offering them an opportunity to ship rice there.

A high-level delegation of the factory owners and other stakeholders had met with Minister Persaud, to discuss mechanisms to meet the quotas being demanded by Venezuela.

Government had been hoping that the better prices offered by the Venezuela deal would have filtered down to the farmers but there have been widespread complaints.

Since the historic deal signed last year between Guyana and Venezuela, millers and exporters have been slow to come onboard.

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PM, not Finance Minister

This newspaper on Friday last carried an article where it was said that Winston Murray accused Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh of deceiving the nation on the establishment of the public Procurement Commission, however, Murray had said that it was the Prime Minister who had deceived.

This newspaper would like to apologise to Dr Ashni Singh for the inadvertent mistake.

Murray in his presentation on the Procurement Amendment Bill said that it was Prime Minister Sam Hinds who said that political consensus was required for the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission.

“With great respect to the Honourable Prime Minister, I thought it was rude of him to answer a question on the establishment of the National Procurement Commission by saying that Government has the establishment of National Procurement Commission on hold while seeking political consensus.”

This, Murray had explained was deceitful, given the fact that the Government has not submitted its nominations for consideration by the Public Accounts Committee for several years.

Again, sincere apologies to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.