In order to meet local demand between May and August, the government authorized the import of 2.3 million quintals of paddy rice.

This decision was taken at an expanded meeting of the Committee on the Agrifood Chain of Rice, where its members agreed to recommend to the Executive the import of rice mentioned above, whose date of entry into the country is limited to 15 June 2020, which is recorded in the minutes of the resolution, reported the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA).

You may be interested in “Rice: Regional Imports up to September 2019”

Augusto Valderrama, head of MIDA, explained that “… this is the first time that this government in eight (8) months will import paddy rice, to supply the demand until August, when the harvest of this important grain begins.”

The guarantee for the import of the grain is given in a context of increase in the area dedicated to the cultivation of rice, since for the 2019-2020 agricultural cycle 67,558 hectares were planted in the country, an area that exceeds by 5% that reported for the previous harvest.

According to CentralAmericaData reports, from January to September 2019 the main rice importer in Central America was Costa Rica, with $57 million, followed by Panama, with $38 million, Honduras, with $34 million, Guatemala and Nicaragua, with $31 million each, and El Salvador, with $19 million.