Dear Editor,
On New Year’s Day I decided to travel to the northern side of the Essequibo Coast to wish one of my best friends a happy New Year. I ran into some discontented millers and rice farmers, and was told by the millers that there is favouritism in the allocation of quotas for rice and paddy for the Venezuelan market. One miller told me that he did not receive any quotas because one time he had been outspoken against the government, although he was a big buyer of farmers’ paddy and was paying promptly for their produce.
He had observed that two major players who had influence had a vested interest in a particular rice miller’s operations in the northern part of the coast. This miller, they alleged, had received more quotas than all the millers in the country for supplying rice and paddy to the Venezuelan market, and they were wondering if these two persons had shares in this private mill. According to these discontented millers and farmers, this particular rice miller had received bail-outs from government while others did not.
Farmers from Wakenaam were encouraged by these two influential men to sell their paddy to this miller rather than other millers, and this marginalization they claimed was putting them out of business and soon they would have to close their operations including their expansion which was done lately to improve their mills on the assumption of fair quotas and market share on the international and local market. One miller told me that he has the most modern operation which can produce extra long grain rice with 80% or more kernels after milling, with a length of 7.0 mm.
Long grain rice with 80% or more of kernels after milling with a length of 6.99 mm, medium grain and short grain can compete on the international and local market, while the favoured miller has an outdated operation which is producing a lower quality of rice. The farmers said they have lost confidence in these two people in the rice industry since they have not been representing their cause for decades and they cannot remember the last time they were seen picketing the rice millers for outstanding payments due to farmers.
Rice farmers also claimed that very soon the rice industry will come crashing down like GuySuCo; what is saving the industry is the fact farmers are using their own money with prudent management to cultivate their crops. The Minister continues to boast of a bonanza year for rice and paddy, but the truth is the economy is slowing down; we are faced with price drops for key exports like rice, sugar, gold, etc, as well as projected production and revenue shortfalls due to mismanagement. Our performance in the economic sphere up to the end of 2014 has not been positive.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
