Violence led to halted exports into the port in Port-au-Prince, forcing all vessels to route to Cap Haitian
Jun 03, 2024
ARLINGTON, VA – Late last month, Kenya’s President William Ruto became the first African leader to make an official state visit to Washington, DC, in more than 15 years to meet with President Joe Biden and other U.S. government leaders.
President Ruto’s visit came ahead of the expected arrival of roughly 1,000 Kenyan troops into Haiti as part of a Kenyan-led multinational force to help restore order and suppress gang violence and control within the country. Haiti has been ravaged by gang violence which began escalating following the assassination of their President, Jovenel Moïse, almost three years ago.
In late February, violence in Port-au-Prince reached a pivotal moment, leading to the closure of the country’s primary airport and the gangs blocked the return of Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry who was forced to resign in April of this year. This turbulence also led to halted exports into the port in Port-au-Prince, forcing all vessels to route to Cap Haitian.
Louisiana rice miller, chair of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee, and longtime rice exporter to Haiti Bobby Hanks said, “We have thankfully been able to continue shipping rice to Cap Haitian while Port-au-Prince is inaccessible, but the market in Cap Haitian has become saturated in rice and unfortunately we’re not able to truck that into Port-au-Prince because of the gang presence.”
Hanks continued: “We know that 1,000 troops in this multinational force is probably not enough to restore complete order to the country, but we are optimistic that it will help to provide enough stability that exporters are able to access the port in Port-au-Prince and get rice and other critical food to those people as soon as possible. We are appreciative of Senator Bill Cassidy’s continued engagement with the U.S. representatives to the UN over the last year in support of funding and physical intervention in Haiti.”
Kenya’s President Ruto shared during his trip to Washington that their force was expected to deploy to Haiti by mid-June. This has been after more than nine months of logistical and procedural delays within both Kenya and in Haiti since the United Nations approved the peacekeepers last year.
In April 2024, Haiti formally established a Transitional Council to fill the Prime Minister position after former Prime Minister Ariel Henry stepped down earlier in the year. Following a failed attempt in early spring, on May 28, the Transitional Council appointed former Prime Minister Garry Conille to return to the position during the government’s transition period to appoint a cabinet and lead the nation to a democratic Presidential election.
Haiti is the largest market for milled long grain rice from the United States with an average of 415,371 MT exported annually between 2019-2023 according to U.S. Census Bureau data. So far this marketing year, there’s been 330,000 MT in outstanding sales and accumulated exports, according to Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) export sales reporting data.