Dionne Rose, Business Reporter

Jamaicans have been consuming more rice in the wake of Hurricane Dean. - File

A rise in Jamaica's consumption of rice and the inability of the island's major supplier, Guyana, to keep pace with demand has created a tight market - if not outright scarcity - for the staple, causing a sharp spiral in the price of the commodity, distributors and retailers say.

A year ago, the regular grades of rice retailed at $38 per kilogram. Today, that same quantity is likely to cost $55.60, a hike of 46 per cent.

But consumers can pay as much as $60 a kilo for rice, 58 per cent higher than at this time last year.

"It is extremely difficult," said Ruddy Hudson, general manager of Facey Commodity, one of the island's major distribution firms. "We are not able to fulfil our obligations."

Under the rules of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), an economic political cooperation grouping among 15 regional states, Jamaica is obliged to give first crack at its market to rice produced within the community.

That, essentially, means that it buys a substantial portion of its rice from Guyana, the largest of Caricom's two rice growers.

The other is Suriname.

While rice consumption has long been edging up in Jamaica, the upswing has been sharp since Hurricane Dean slammed into the island last August.

The hurricane hit agricultural production hard, reduced output of locally-grown staples such as banana, yam and breadfruit.

Rice consumption

Jamaicans have, as a consequence, been eating more rice, with demand for the first 11 months of last year, at 93,100 metric tonnes, being seven per cent higher than the 87,064 tonnes for all of 2006.

While Guyana's supply of rice to the island increased by 13 per cent during January and November last year, compared to the same period in 2006 - from 36,700 tonnes to 41,476 - it has not been able to satisfy all of Jamaica's demand. Guyana currently supplies approximately 45 per cent of all the rice consumed in Jamaica, up from 42 per cent in all of 2006.

But despite the data suggesting higher Guyanese rice exports to Jamaica, some importers here claim not to be getting as much as in the past.

The largest importer, Jamaica Rice Milling Company, for instance, says that it has in recent months been able to pin down only about 70 per cent of its normal amounts.

"There are people (buyers) from other countries in Guyana offering our same suppliers high prices (and) reducing the availability even more than we have expected," said Bruno Loffler, the company's commercial manager.

In the face of the shortage, Jamaica has looked towards Caricom's other rice producer, Suriname as well as the U.S. state of Louisiana to cover the shortfall.

Import waivers

The government has granted waivers for imports from outside of Caricom without punishing tariffs and Michael Stern, the junior Industry and Commerce Minister, has played down the severity of the problem.

"We have taken the necessary steps for rice to be available in the market going forward," Stern told Sunday Business.

"We know that there would be a slump towards the end of December but that is minor ... We are not alarmed about the nudge in the system right now because the market should have enough rice going forward."

Indeed, at least one distributor, T. Geddes Grant, seems to support Stern's assessment of the market, saying that the waiver to import from outside Caricom had eased the chronic shortage.

"We are selling quite freely now," said Bruce Taylor, sales and industrial manager at T.Geddes Grant. "We are anticipating that by the end of the month into February some shortage."

However, sector officials expect that soon thereafter, with a new harvest expected in Guyana, the situation will improve significantly.

"The word out of Guyana is that they are planting a good crop for the spring and they will start reaping in early March and that the substantial quantity will come to Jamaica at the end of March," said Jamaica Rice Milling's Loffler.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com