COMPETITIVIDAD DE LA CADENA ARROCERA DEL ESTADO PORTUGUESA, VENEZUELA, EN LOS PROCESOS DE INTEGRACIÓN EN SUDAMÉRICA

The rice chain in the Portuguesa state is of great significance for Venezuela because half of the country's production comes from that state. Activities' integration that goes from production to consumption have some specificities which, in rice producing countries, the most important are those linked to the production and transformation of raw materials. On top, political and economic instability induce to take unwise macroeconomic decisions that affect the monetary system and balance of the country causing clear negative impacts on the rice chain. Several countries from the CAN (Colombia) and MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) have been selected either as exporters or importers and consequently as potential competitors on the international markets or even in the national market. In this work, it has been undertaken a competitiveness analysis of the rice chain, in the Portuguese state comparing the previously mentioned countries based on representative variables of rice production: yield per hectare and its evolution, price paid to farmers, production cost and profit; transformation: yield for whole grains; consumption: consumption per capita; trade balance for rice: import and export; monetary policy: annual and cumulative inflation, and exchange rate; and, finally, policies applied in the sector. The objective is to evaluate the competitiveness of the rice chain and to suggest corrective measures for the future.