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Interventions to tackle declining global rice prices to be unveiled soon – Jagdeo
Kaieteur News- The Government of Guyana on Thursday said that it is paying close attention to world market prices for rice given the expectation that prices will decline by approximately 10 per cent.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo (Interventions to tackle declining..,)
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told reporters at his weekly press conference that several interventions will be made soon and noted that rice can be used as a value-added product.
“We have already started counting the numbers to see what could be done for this crop. So very soon, the rice farmers and the rice millers are going to hear from us on that matter. We have to find more markets, because our production is expanding. We have to find more markets that are better remunerated, you know, higher prices,” Jagdeo said.
He explained that the world market prices for rice have come down and therefore there needs to be the promotion of more domestic usage, as well as the industrialization of the sector.
“Right now, we’re working in the Government on some arrangement, and hopefully we’d be able to get the prices back up. We’ve been talking to the millers, and we will come with some initiative, which we will unveil shortly,” the Vice President said.
An allocation of $430.9M has been allocated to the rice sector outside of fertiliser support in the 2025 budget.
Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh told the National Assembly in January that the sector saw what he terms as a ‘strong expansion’ of an estimated 9.3% in 2024, with the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) reporting rice production at 725,282 metric tonnes, compared with 653,706 metric tonnes a year prior.
The sector’s performance was widely attributed “to better yields, which improved to 6.6 metric tonnes per hectare in 2024 from 6.3 metric tonnes per hectare in 2023, with some producing regions having yields averaging above 7 metric tonnes per hectare.”
The minister said that, “In 2025, investments will expand storage capacity at No. 56 Seed Facility and extend precision agriculture technology to farmers, including specialised broadcast equipment to improve efficiency in crop management.
Based on the performance last year, it is expected that the sector will continue on its’ upward path, and should grow by an additional 12.4% this year.
The industry’s target for 2025 is 840,000 metric tonnes, and this is supported by “a ramp up in acreage cultivated, and continued focus on deploying new and more productive varieties, and enhancing research and development,” he said.
(Interventions to tackle declining global rice prices to be unveiled soon – Jagdeo)
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