Millers agree to pay $3000 per bag of paddy; Govt to continue negotiations today – Agri Min

…meetings to continue with millers, overseas markets

Rice millers have agreed to increase their offer to rice farmers to $3000 per bag of paddy following a meeting with Government officials and millers across the country on Tuesday.

This is according to Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, who met with rice farmers in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) on Wednesday.
“From the meeting yesterday (Tuesday), two of the millers in Berbice have increased their price to about $3000. We were talking to the rice miller again to go back to the price… So this is a work in progress. We are continuing to meet with them… We will continue to see what more we can have. So that is the update we have had up to now,” said Mustapha, who, along with Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, met with millers on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s meeting with the farmers was spearheaded by President Dr Irfaan Ali and also included Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.
Rice farmers countrywide have expressed concern over the reduced price for paddy being offered by millers.
President Ali pointed out that the situation is complex as it involves not only the millers and farmers.
“We have to be involved; the millers have to be involved. And of course, the markets have to be involved. We have to talk to the markets. This is not about us, anybody fighting each other. One thing you all know for sure is that you have the Government that supports you; we are going to work with you. Because we love you, and we genuinely want you to succeed,” the Head of State told the rice farmers.

Global prices
“The situation is very complex at the moment because you have dumping, you have falling prices, you have oversupply, and you have a bumper crop all over the world. You have markets that have outstanding money for millers. So it’s a very complex environment we are operating in,” he continued.
Global rice prices have experienced a decline this year. This is due to a combination of factors affecting supply and demand dynamics.
One key driver is the resumption of exports from major rice-producing countries such as India and Vietnam, following earlier restrictions and tight supply in 2023 and early 2024. Improved weather conditions have also contributed to higher yields in parts of Asia, leading to increased global supply.
As a result, international buyers are seeing more options and negotiating lower prices, pushing down the average price per metric tonne. Additionally, inflationary pressures in many importing countries have dampened demand, as buyers seek to manage their food import bills more conservatively.
Minister Mustapha pointed out that local rice millers are saying that for this crop, the price has decreased tremendously because of the market overseas, which is why millers are not offering the same price as they did last crop.

<<<<Diplomatic endeavours>>>
Ali told the farmers that millers are also having challenges, noting that one of their biggest issues is cash flow.
“Because some of them have sold to markets where they have not been paid in a timely manner. And the President has instructed us to engage with those markets at the highest level.”
Both the Finance Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry have been trying to assist the millers.
“This morning, we followed up on some conference calls at a Ministerial level to try to get those markets to flesh out the cash flow debts that are owed to the millers, which will ease the cash flow problems that are being faced right now with the millers and improve their ability to pay the farmers. So we are even pursuing this at a diplomatic level because we recognise, like I said, this is not only a rice farmers’ problem or a rice millers’ problem,” Minister Singh said.
President Ali pointed out that his Government will continue to engage the markets overseas and the millers and farmers locally.
“I have instructed the Minister to go all across the country to meet with the farmers. They will come back to me in 14 days with a full report. We will discuss it at the cabinet, and then we will see what type of initiative we can pursue,” he said.

Reducing production costs
Mustapha noted that production costs need to be reduced as much as possible to make locally produced rice competitive on the world market.
One of the factors pushing production costs up is the high price farmers are being forced to pay for land rental.
“There are a lot of landlords who live overseas and rent their land out to the farmers. And the farmers who are doing one plot and two plots of rice cultivation are trying to raise one another, increasing the price. That is the main cost of the production,” Mustapha said.
President Ali said he will be addressing the issue of land rental.
Additionally, the Government has already taken steps to assist farmers in reducing the cost of production.
Finance Minister Dr Singh, in explaining this to the farmers, pointed out that apart from land rent, fuel also plays a significant cost factor in the production of rice.
“As you know, one of the first things that President Ali did after he came into Government was to take the taxes off of refined fuel products, gasoline, and diesel. And that measure alone provided an additional $80 to $90 billion in the hands of the Guyanese people. Some are farmers. Many are farmers. Some are miners as well. Some are, of course, just commuters, transportation operators, and transportation users. But it is a very costly contributor. It is a significant cost. It is a very significant cost contributor,” he explained.

Government interventions
Meanwhile, Minister Mustapha pointed out that the Government would have directly injected $2 billion into the pockets of farmers through the subsidy of $300 per bag of paddy sold to millers during the first crop of this year.
Millers had agreed to pay $3700 per bag of paddy, with the Government contributing $300 to ensure that the rice farmers receive no less than $4000 per bag of paddy sold to the mills.
The $2 billion he noted is not included in the cost for fertiliser supplied to farmers for the second rice crop, which they are currently harvesting.
“Another $2 billion was expended on fertiliser. So the contribution directly to farmers for the last crop that you received fertiliser for, the second crop of 2025, was directly over $4 billion, including the commission, that over $600 million that GRDB [Guyana Rice Development Board] would have foregone.”
Additionally, the Head of State pointed out that the Government is also looking at other ways to ensure that farmers increase their income from the land they have.
In order to do this, the Government will be investing in having experts from around the world visit to see how one-tenth of the farmer’s cultivation can be converted to produce an alternative crop.
“Whether we do cage farming for crab, which has high value and a big market, we can put a processing plant to do the crab meat. So for every 10 acres of rice farm, we have to have one acre of high-yielding production. And we are going to invest to help you to do this; that is what is called agribusiness diversification.”
This, President Ali said, is very important for local rice farmers and will also assist with cash flow issues they may encounter.
He added that the Government is seeking to have the local rice industry expand and for farmers to do more.
“We want you to grow. We want you to expand. You know, we have said that we want increased cultivation. We are opening up more land for increased cultivation. We want you to expand your cultivation. We want to make sure that you are able to produce competitively so that the millers can mill your paddy competitively and export it… And in fact, we are working on finding more markets.”
Noting that in all the rice-producing regions the Government will be building storage facilities for rice, President Ali pointed out that much emphasis will be placed on stockpiling.
“So we can stockpile, we have to have the capacity nationally to stockpile maybe five million tonnes of rice. Because we want rice to succeed, we want you to continue to plant, and we want you to continue to invest in better varieties to give you higher yields.”
He noted that the appropriate infrastructure will have to be in place to support those investments.