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Guyana rice exports increased in 2023. (CMC file photo)
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana has recorded a seven per cent increase in rice production this year as compared with 2022, earning nearly GUY$50 billion (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents).
The country also recorded a significant increase of 28 per cent or 13,155 metric tonnes in sugar production, as compared to 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022.
“In 2023 we saw an increase in paddy production by seven per cent which translates to the production of 653,706 metric tons. That is 43,111 metric tons increase in the production in 2023 compared to 2022 production of 610,595,” said Agriculture Minister, Zulfikar Mustapha.
He told an end of year news conference that due to favourable weather conditions throughout the year, the variety in rice yield increased from 6.2 tonnes to 6.3 tonnes per hectare.
“We earned approximately GUY$45.2 billion in export. That is equivalent to US$210 million in 2023. Over three billion dollars more than 2022,” Mustapha said, adding that the increase in revenue is due to Guyana being able to gain access to more international markets during the past year.
He said there were other factrors that contributed to a good year for the rice sector.
“For scientists to continue on this path and conduct more trials, we have renovated the plant-breathing lab at Burma, Region Five. We are hoping that we can do more research and bring out better varieties of rice,” he said.
Mustapha said the lab will specifically help to perform research with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the international body that has been collaborating with Guyana to study the bio-certified rice or the zinc-enriched variety rice.
Moreover, he noted that eight drying floors have been built across the country in the last three years and that the Black Bush Polder seed processing facility in Region Six that has been made operable during the year will produce close to 6,000 bags of paddy for approximately 600 farmers.
He said the ministry will continue to explore options to expand its rice production in the near future.
Mustpaha also announced that with an investment of GUY$8.1 billion this year to advance the revitalisation efforts of the sugar industry, Guyana registered a significant increase of 28 per cent or 13,155 metric tonnes in sugar production, as compared to 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022.
He said one of the major achievements for sugar is the reopening of the Rose Hall Sugar Estate in September 2023.
“Sugar production in 2023, we closed at 60, 204 metric tonnes, a 28 per cent or 13,155 metric tonnes increase in production when compared to 47,049 metric tonnes in 2022. The industry was able to replant 52 per cent more lands in 2023, which is a total of 4,020 hectares as compared to 2,640 hectares in 2022.
“We will be seeing less and less dependency from the government in terms of the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) revitalising and bringing back GuySuCo at that point that we want it to achieve. We have seen a 22 per cent decrease of funding that we have requested from the government in 2023 as compared to 2022.”
Guyana has also registered a further 54 per cent of sugar production which was marketed as packaged sugar in 2023, as compared to 48 per cent in 2022.
“We have launched two new value-added packaged brands. One is the Albion Gem and the other is the Demerara Gold Sugar Stick Sachet,” said Mustapha, telling reporters that the government has employed 4,692 new employees in the sugar industry.
The total number of workers in GuySuCo at the end of 2023 is 8,294 persons.
Over the next two years, Mustapha said that government will convert over 5,000 hectares of lands to have mechanisation being conducted in terms of harvesting and mechanical loading.
“We are seeing clearly a revitalisation of the sugar industry and we are seeing more and more people are benefitting.”
