First rice shipment to Cuba in 40 years

Sep 26, 2017 News

A load that was passed onto the vessel, while another load awaits.

“As Caribbean countries we must support each other,” said Representative of ALIMPORT, Cuba, Reynaldo Aguirre, at Muneshwer’s Limited Shipping Complex. At the time, the first batch of rice was being prepared to leave Guyana’s shores yesterday for Cuba.
Yesterday’s shipment marked the first time, since 1999 that the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) was exporting rice to Cuba.
With a population of 11 million, Aguirre said, “Rice is very important in the Cuban diet. We produce rice in Cuba, but we are not self-sufficient. We need rice besides the rice we produce, so we need to import in quantities.”
The GRDB, through Nand Persaud and Company Limited, who are the producers of Karibee Rice brand, yesterday offloaded 7,500 tonnes of rice to be exported to Cuba.
Representative from GRDB, Allison Peters, explained that the company is responsible for the quality of rice from the time it leaves Guyana to the time it arrives to its export destination in Cuba. She said the fact that it is the first shipment headed to Cuba, through ALIMPORT, the Cuban import agency for rice, representatives were present to ‘oversee’ the process.
The GRDB expects similar deals. Peters said, “The government is always looking for contracts for the rice industry and this is just one of those. Not only would the Government of Guyana do contracts but also private exporters.”
She said the company is always looking for new buyers who offer good prices.
Representative from ALIMPORT, Cuba, Reynaldo Aguirre said, “Since a long time we haven’t work with importing the Guyanese rice. We are confident that this will be the beginning of a long standing relationship.
We trust, also, in the Guyana Rice Development Board because they are very respectful people and they are very serious about handling the quality of this shipment, so we feel confident that everything will go smoothly.”
Aguirre said that he looks forward to other shipments in the years ahead.
He highlighted that the company chose Guyana as its supplier due to the standard and quality of the product. He said, “We have always made tenders. We look for the better conditions for rice, the better quality.”
According to him, Guyana’s import through Nand Persaud fosters a ‘good business relationship’. Due to the close proximity of Guyana to Cuba, the country has made the choice quite effortlessly.
It was revealed that Guyana has signed a contract with the Government of Cuba, through ALIMPORT to export the product. The next shipment of an approximate 8,000 metric tonnes is expected to leave Guyana on October 10, next.
Reynaldo Aguirre explained that the Cuban company is very excited to partner with Guyana due to the high quality of the product. He also expressed satisfaction with the prices. He said, his only reason for being in Guyana, is to observe the shipment.
He did not hesitate to inform that he does look forward to future partnerships with Guyana. Given that Cuba is just five to six days away from Guyana, the freight should be lower than in other places. “We believe it makes more sense than to bring the rice from other places that are far away and the freight is a little bit higher. So we will be saving money and also having a very good quality of rice and in less time.”
It was disclosed that during the period that Cuba did not import rice from Guyana, it would have received shipments from several other countries, inclusive of some in Asia, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
This new market arrives at a time in Guyana where the country has been struggling to find new markets for the agricultural product, since it lost a key importer, Venezuela, in 2015. More than 100,000 tonnes of rice and paddy were being supplied by Guyana.

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