US open to rice trade with Guyana – Hunt

ChargÉ d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in Guyana Bryan Hunte said the rice sector in the United States (US) is most “certainly opened to Guyanese rice exporters , and that the Embassy would be willing to facilitate in the process, should anyone become interested.

Guyanese rice farmers and millers alike have already begun expressing grave concerns over the future of the rice sector here, as bouts of uncertainty continue to hang over the largest market for rice and paddy – Venezuela. The oil rich nation, had accounted for around 60 per cent of total exports in 2010.

The concerns escalated last week when Finance Minister Winston Jordan, upon his return from Venezuela after holding talks with officials there, told Guyana Times that the country would not be renewing the rice deal contract it has with Guyana, which is embedded in the PetroCaribe deal. This year’s contract comes to an end in November.

Millers had begun urging Government to see how best it could address the situation, as thousands of farmers were bound to lose out if things did not work out in their favour. Government however, on Monday reported that there was no problem with the deal, and that it would be continuing as scheduled.

Critics have said that Venezuela’s move to discontinue the deal after the November deadline is nothing more than a political move by the South American nation, which has been claiming ownership of Guyana’s territorial boundary. Venezuela continues to lay claim to part of the Stabroek block; an area where it was recently discovered has oil. The US-based exploration company ExxonMobil, which has been drilling since March of this year, made the discovery.

Guyana’s stance on the issue, which was settled some 116 years ago through an arbitral award, was taken to a forum which saw the attendance of Caribbean Heads of Government earlier this month. The Regional heads committed their support to Guyana.

While uncertainty looms for the rice sector here, the US ChargÉ d’Affaires said the rice industry in his home country is available to rice exporters here.

“The Embassy is more than willing to assist them in making business contact with the United States and to understand our sanitary and phytosanitary regulations for such exports”, he told journalists at a recent function.

He said for the United States, the purchase of rice is a Private Sector matter, “so it will be Private Sector US importers who would conclude deals with Guyanese exporters in order to send rice to the United States, but we are more than happy to facilitate contact for anyone who may be interested in that”, he assured.

Earlier this year, when the Venezuela/Guyana controversy again started to brew, Hunt had said that the US was standing ready to support the Government of Guyana on the position it has taken against the Venezuelan Government, over its move to stop the US oil company from carrying out its exploratory work. He had said too that the US has taken a negative stance of any attempt by any Government that would seek to disrupt the work of the oil company.

Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post, Venezuelan President NicolÁs Maduro is facing a staggering array of problems. It said with Venezuelan crude down to about US$50 a barrel, Maduro’s Government has been devouring its foreign currency reserves and plunging deeper into debt, though not fast enough to keep supermarkets stocked. Annual inflation is the highest in the world, and the country’s largest bank note, 100 “Strong Bolivars,” is now worth just 17 US cents on the black market. The country may soon run low on beer.

The newspaper said “It might come as something of a surprise, then, to see that the Venezuelan President’s most pressing concern in recent days is not a shortage of milk, surgical supplies or contraceptives. It is a vigorous and noisy campaign to take control of a large swath of South American savannah and jungle, known as the Essequibo that belongs to neighbouring Guyana.

For the past several days, Maduro has been assuring Venezuelans, many of whom are busy queuing up for groceries and basic goods, that his Government is working to achieve a “great victory” and take control of the disputed Essequibo, an area equal to two-thirds of Guyanese territory”, the article said.

Possession of the Essequibo – named for the big jungle river flowing through it – was granted to Guyana, then a British colony, by an arbitration judge in 1899. Venezuela challenged the ruling as unfair in 1962, and the dispute has been quietly simmering ever since.

“We are going to take back what our grandparents left for us,” Maduro told his country last week. He asked UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon to provide a new round of international arbitration, while promising “a great victory” over Guyana “by peaceful means.”

Maduro has assigned a retired Army Colonel Pompeyo Torrealba, to lead a newly formed Government agency, the “Essequibo Rescue Office,” whose plans include issuing 200,000 Venezuelan identification cards to the Guyanese living in the area.