Chairman of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Claude Housty says that government has settled all of its financial obligations with rice millers.
The statement came in the wake of continuing complaints by rice farmers on the Essequibo Coast that they have not been paid by millers.
GINA today said that the GRDB Chairman joined the Acting General Manager of the GRDB Nizam Hassan and GRDB executive and miller Dr. Peter deGroot for an in-depth examination of the local rice sector with the state information agency recently. According to Hassan “All the millers have been paid moneys that were owed to them by the Government of Guyana”.
GINA said that it was explained that some millers may still owe rice farmers but this is due to private contracts for other markets that they have exported rice to. Hassan said the GRDB “didn’t have those contracts”. The ongoing problem has been compounded by the fact that supplies were purchased, with prices based on the demand and prices obtained via the Venezuelan markets, deGroot added. GINA said that he further explained, “When the Venezuelan market came to a sudden stop, millers were caught with stock on their hand. This was purchased at a high price, higher than the millers could make money on…Millers are caught with stock on hand that they have difficulty in exporting and they will not be able to export it and make a profit”. This, he said, has contributed to the difficulties some millers face in paying the farmers.
GINA said that it was also revealed that there is an equal number of millers who are owed moneys by farmers. de Groot said, “Some of them finance the farmers in order to go back into the crop”. Essequibo millers are often the least indebted, he noted, but with regards those in Region 5 and 6, “the reverse is probably true”.
