The arrival of rice from Uruguay to Ecuador was not the reason why there was a slight drop in the price of a bag of paddy rice supplied by the producer to the factories, but this drop is due to the supply in the national harvest that currently exists. This was stated by the president of the Rice Industrial Corporation of Ecuador (Corpcom), Juan Pablo Zúñiga.

The industrialist states that the minimum support price is $34.50, and what the millers are currently paying is $53. However, producers indicated that they were getting between 50 and 51 dollars, while until seven months ago they were getting 55 dollars per bag.

Producers assure that the high price they received in the piladoras has already started to fall due to the arrival of rice imported from Uruguay

“It’s down $3 per bag in the last two weeks, staying at an average of $53 per 200-pound bag of paddy rice, and the minimum support price is $34.50, we’re way above that,” Zúñiga says.

The minimum support price, which was set in July 2022 and remains in effect, is $32.50 per bag of short-grain rice and $34.50 per bag of long-grain rice.

According to Zúñiga, what is causing the “small” drop in prices is that “now there is more supply because luckily the harvest is coming.” Although he indicates that this harvest “will not be enough to supply the market or maybe supply until December, everything will depend on what happens with the El Niño phenomenon”, but that from then the imports that are made and what could come more Later it will serve for what would be the first half of 2024.

Zúñiga indicates that Ecuador consumes 100 tons of rice per hour, and what has arrived so far from Uruguay is less than 2,000 tons, of which the first batch began with the arrival of 400 tons in September. “It hasn’t arrived for even one day’s consumption and it will arrive for the next eight or ten weeks, but it will be small quantities, so it cannot be said that the minimum quantity that arrives in conditions of high consumption will cause the problem of falling prices,” he says.

The first 400 tons of Uruguayan rice grain have arrived in Ecuador, a total of 15,000 will arrive in eight weeks

According to Zúñiga, the import of rice will help ensure that there will be no shortage of products when the rains start due to the El Niño phenomenon and farmers can no longer continue sowing and shortages occur, which causes not only price increases, but also the inability to offer the consumer a product of basic needs.

“This rice will start to be seen around November, December (in supermarkets) after the national harvest is absorbed and consumed,” he says.

The industrialist points out that the pillers fulfill the obligation of guaranteeing absorption and prioritizing the national harvest. “There can’t be one manufacturer that says there’s no one to supply product to, because none of the bunch have had high inventory, they’ve all had minimal inventory or historic lows over the last 15, 20 years.”

The imported rice will arrive at different mills where it is again processed and packaged. “This rice cannot be immediately seen on the market yet, because the millers have to adapt it to the quality standards that each of them has with their brands,” he explains.