After two intense years of negotiations, Colombia will begin to export rice to the United States. For this first occasion, four containers will be shipped. That is, around 100 tons that will be marketed by the company Thomas & Toledo LLC.
(Read: Exports from the Andean Community recovered at the end of 2021).
This agreement is the product of the work between the National Federation of Rice Growers (Fedearroz) and the Association of Latin American Chambers of Commerce in the United States.
“Achieving this has been a struggle. This is just the beginning. We have achieved a competitiveness that allows us to reach this type of market ”, assured Rafael Hernández, manager of Fedearroz, within the framework of the Socialization of the Rice Export Plan to the United States.
The official also highlighted that the containers to be shipped were grown by women in Colombia. “This year we can see with great satisfaction that from rural women we can have rice exports. This is a small contingent, but surely this will continue to grow because Colombian rice is of quality. We can even work on the appellation of origin with examples such as Tolima,” said the minister of the agricultural portfolio, Rodolfo Zea Navarro, who added that exports can also help regulate cereal prices in Colombia.
OUR RICE IN CUBA
The market has been expanding over the years. Currently, the national production of rice is destined, almost in its entirety, to the domestic market. This has generated periods of oversupply and downward changes in paddy prices. What has negatively affected the farmer.
Between 2018 and 2019, different export pilots were carried out to countries such as Canada. Finally, last year, Fedearroz made the first export of Colombian rice to Cuba, around 300 tons they arrived in that country.
(Besides: 12 projects entered the national interconnected system).
In order to improve the competitiveness and income of producers, Minister Zea pointed out that last year they invested more than 60,000 million pesos in support for the productive rice subsector.
BRIEFCASE
With information from EL TIEMPO*
