Alfredo Lago, president of the Rice Growers Association (ACA), from Mexico where he is participating in an international congress, highlighted The Observer than the record -9,577 kilos of dry and clean rice per hectare- is a solid achievement, not a good isolated record, and one that the reduction in the value of fuel is something welcome, but with pleasure little by little and not promptly for the $4.
The harvest reported a production of 1.5 million tons.
Record
The indicated productivity record, equivalent to 191.5 bags of 50 kilos per hectare, was achieved in an area of 159,700 hectares fully harvested area 2% less than that of the previous campaignobtaining a production of 1.5 million tonssimilar to that of the 2021/22 financial year
These data were reported in the 19th Workshop on Harvest Evaluation and Technological Analysis of Rice 2022/23organized by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) at its facilities in Treinta y Tres, with the participation of the productive and industrial sectors.
Over there an increase in production cost of 15% was also notedhow the planting was distributed in each zone of the country and the use of each variety in the farms was reported.
“We had been seeing the possibility of a record harvest, which luckily, due to all that it means for many producers and many people involved, was confirmed and also in a year where there was a lot of concern in the cultivation process to be able to arrive with enough water. and be efficient in irrigation,” he said.
In Mexico
Lago, along with ACA Vice President Guillermo O’Brien, participate in the First Rice Technology and Market Convention, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
He immediately pointed out that in the congress in which Mexico participates, those who know the new record (there was another only two years ago) show surprise and admiration for a Uruguayan achievement which is not precisely isolated, given that productivity advances year by year and since the 2020/2021 harvest it has always been above 9,000 kilos and with two records in three years.
For this achievement, he highlighted, the increasing incorporation in the farms of the use of the INIA Merín variety, the climate in general collaborated and that is added, to explain the ascending graph, to the knowledge of the producer about the crop, his effort and the investment .
“There is a set of factors that make producers, all of us in the rice agro-industrial chain, deserve to have this good news”Lake indicated.
Regarding a new edition of the Rice Workshop, the president of the ACA stressed the value of “the level of information that is provided about the sector, with many details in many indicators, with a comforting transparency that is essential for the INIA, the ACA and the industry, providing data with security”.
The last harvest considered the planting of almost 160,000 hectares.
Gasoil
The drop in the price of diesel “is first of all something very welcome”Lake indicated. Still, he pointed out, “We cannot fail to see the context, this is not a definitive solution, we continue to have the most expensive fuel in the region based on a structure by the Ancap monopoly that does not allow us to be competitive in comparative terms”.
“If we don’t change, if we don’t demonopolize, surely we will be condemned to have the most expensive fuel in the region,” he added.
“Welcome the reduction, but it tastes like little, not because of the $4 per liter, but because this reduction does not translate into a definitive improvement in the short, medium and long term,” he concluded.
