New markets opening up for rice but subsidised competition poses a threat
Stabroek News
December 15, 2006
Local rice storage silos: Protection of regional markets from the growing threat of foreign imports is crucial to the fortunes of the local rice industry.
Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Stockfeeds Ltd Robert Badal has told the Tenth Annual General Meeting of the Caribbean Rice Millers Association (CMA) that increased global rice consumption including the opening up of new hemispheric markets in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic was creating new and promising opportunities for the local and regional rice industries. But according to Badal those opportunities can only be exploited if a level playing field can be created for regional producers through the removal of subsidies to rice imports from Europe and North America.
Addressing the regional rice forum on the closing day of the December 5-6 conference at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel Badal said that the challenges facing the local and regional rice industries were counterbalanced by new opportunities including the emergence of niche markets for extra long grain rice and organically cultivated rice and increased technical cooperation in the global rice industry.
Less than a month ago the Guyana Stockfeeds Ltd commissioned its new US$10m rice mill that has equipped the company to export parboiled rice to the region. But Badal said that the local and regional rice industries were in need of even greater institutional support including the creation of a comprehensive regional agricultural incentive regime that embraces the rice industry and "an unwavering commitment on the part of regional governments to a common agricultural policy."
Guyana is the largest producer of rice in the Caribbean Community and is one of only two countries in the region -the other being Suriname - that has an export capacity. Most CARICOM countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica are importers of rice and the protection of the regional market from external imports, mainly from the United States, has remained at the top of the agenda of the Guyana-led rice lobby.
Around 52 per cent of the rice imported by CARICOM member states is produced in Guyana and Suriname. Of the remaining 48 per cent of the regional rice imports, 86 per cent is provided by the United States. Both Guyana and Suriname also benefit from the larger market of the European Union.
In a comprehensive assessment of the state of the local and regional rice industries Badal told the CMA meeting that low production yields, poor infrastructure and the improper management of the drainage and irrigation system were among the principal production -related weaknesses of the local rice industry. He identified limited drying and storage facilities, the mixing of varieties for milling and limited facilities for value-added products as being among the main processing-related weaknesses of the industry.
Turning to the strengths of the industry Badal told the CMA meeting that Guyana possessed an adequate level of mechanization and rice industry - related skills as well as "suitable natural resources," that is, abundant water and land.
He added that in the area of marketing the extra long grain rice produced locally created lucrative niche marketing opportunities.
Turning to the threats to the industry Badal told the meeting that new diseases, pests, the high cost of imported inputs and climate change linked to rising sea levels were among the principal production-related threats to the local rice industry. He noted that the unavailability of "improved technologies" posed a processing-related threat to the country's rice industry.
Haiti and Jamaica are the region's two largest consumers of rice witrh the populations of the two countries consuming 200,000 tons and 85,000 tons annually, respectively. Guyana ranks third on the list of regional rice consumers with an annual consumption of 50,000 tons. More than 428,000 tons of rice are consumed in the region annually.