GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Guyana has reached an agreement with Mexico allowing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to export duty-free an estimated 150,000 tonnes of rice and paddy to Mexico before yearend.

The ministry of agriculture noted that on March 1, 2017, the Mexican government gazetted the authorisation to import 150,000 tons of rice and paddy, duty-free from Guyana before the end of December 2017.

Since 2015, Guyana has been seeking to enter the Mexican market following the collapse of the Venezuelan market with a delegation of grain producers and exporters recently participating in Expo ANTAD 2017, considered to be the largest trade fair for food retailers in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The Guyana team also met with representatives from Commercial Mexicana and Soriana,” the release said, adding “these are some of the leading brands in food retailing in Mexico; they operate in excess of 650 supermarkets in more than 200 cities.”

Extension Manager at the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRBD), Kuldip Ragnauth said that rice production will be higher this year.

 “I like to let the figures speak for themselves. We have already seen an increase in acres sown when compared to last year. So far we have recorded 225,000 acres as opposed to 180,000 acres for the same period of last year.

“As a matter of fact, we had projected 210,000 acres to be sown for this crop, looking back at the weather impact on the spring crop for this year and last year,” Ragnauth was quoted in the statement by the ministry of agriculture.