Venezuela halts all rice, paddy shipments
…270 containers of rice stuck on wharf, over US$5M in limbo
Rice shipments bound for Venezuela
As the fallout from the collapse of the Guyana/Venezuela rice deal continues, Venezuela yesterday issued a directive for Guyana to cease all paddy and rice shipments to the neighbouring country with immediate effect.
This comes four months before the PetroCaribe agreement was scheduled to come to an end.
With some 270 containers of rice worth over US$5M left stranded on the wharves, and a further surplus crop expected to come by next month, this latest move by the oil producing giant, leaves Guyana with a more urgent need than ever to find an alternative market to Venezuela, which was responsible for 34 percent of rice exports under the PetroCaribe oil for rice deal. Continue reading
