Gov’t advances $2.1B to pay rice farmers

Government has released $2.1 billion to pay rice farmers who have oftentimes complained of being paid late by millers with rice production this year reaching a record 633,000 tonnes.

A statement from the Ministry of Agriculture said that at the beginning of the week, about $600 million was released by the government and it yesterday released $1.5 billion from the PetroCaribe account to assist in paying off rice farmers making the advanced payments so far for the second half of December, $2.1 billion.

Venezuela has been by far the major market for Guyana’s rice and paddy accounting for around 70 per cent of