Harvest is now completed and the final plots where harvested on April 16th. Drying process of the production is almost completed to. It is the most critical operation after harvesting a rice crop. Drying reduces grain moisture content to a safe level for storage. When rice is harvested, it will contain up to 25% moisture. High moisture level during storage can lead to grain discoloration, encourage development of molds, and increase the likelihood of attack from pests. Therefore, any delays in drying reduce grain quality and result in losses.
Based on preliminary results, around 11,000 tons of paddies have been produced for this campaign with a high index of quality (58 to 60%). We are pleased with those preliminary results given the dense rainfall season registered (please refer to previous post), the low number of brightness days registered during the growing period and low temperature recorded during the growing period of the plants (in relative).
The second lesson is that for this season, opening market price were better than past seasons – we cannot say good but just better (in the range of $170/t for standard quality – farm price). We have started the delivery of our paddy rice to local mills for the export market mainly to Brazil.
In order to free ourselves from Brazil, we are also trying to open new export market.