The producers of rice and the business chambers of the rice sector in Uruguay agreed on a new price for the grain, for the moment provisional, for the harvest corresponding to the 2023/2024 harvestThis is a historic figure that also occurs in a context in which excess water complicated the expected yields.
That the harvest was going to have a good price of rice It was already foreseen by the scenario advanced by international references, which were already on the rise and saw an even greater boost due to the catastrophic floods suffered by Rio Grande do Sulthe main rice-growing state of Brazil, affecting the available supply.
Producers and industrialists thus agreed on a provisional price of 17.15 dollars per 50-kilo bag of healthy, dry and clean grain.
“It is a good agreement taking into account the value, the highest in history in dollars per bag or ton, obviously satisfies the producer because it generates profitability in our economic equation,” he highlighted in this regard. Alfredo Lago, President of the Growers Association Rice (ACA).
This negotiation stage, he stressed, “is the most important for quantifying the producer’s income, even though after March there is an adjustment through the final price that normally improves the price a little, but this happens at the end of the fiscal year and the impact is always significant.”
The agreement was closed between the producers grouped in the ACA and the rice industries Saman, Coopar SA, Casarone Agroindustrial and Adeco Agro SA. And it takes on even greater value if we take into account the delays in the harvest due to excess rain during the fall, especially in the eastern part of the country, where the agricultural emergency in twelve sections; that prevented producers from harvesting everything they planted.
In any case, the total harvest was estimated at 1.3 million tons generated on almost 150 thousand hectares by nearly 500 producers, with a national average yield of about 8,800 kilos per hectare.
60% of rice has already been exported
Along with the historical provisional price, this harvest has another peculiarity: 60% of the harvested rice has already been sold, a much higher percentage than in previous years that also contributed to giving “strength and firmness” to the negotiation.
Likewise, it is expected that in the next harvest the sown area. Something that, if the weather conditions are favorable, would mean even greater performance for this productive sector of the country.
Meanwhile, the market remains firm for rice and for the 40% of the harvest that remains to be sold abroad, a good price level would be maintained, with Europe and Brazil as main destinations, in addition to others such as Venezuela, Mexico and Peru.
Source: Ambito
