Panama likely to settle $1.9B debt to Guyanese rice millers before year-end – Agri Minister

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha announced that efforts are being made to ensure that rice millers who are owed $1.9 billion for over two years by the Panamanian authorities are paid before the end of this year.

According to Mustapha, when the PPP/C Government took office in August, it found that no action was being taken by the previous coalition Administration to intervene on behalf of the farmers and millers to ensure that the outstanding payment was made.
In spite of pleadings for help, the APNU/AFC Government had insisted that it was not responsible for farmers being owed by millers for rice that was shipped to Panama and had taken a back-seat approach to the issue.
Minister Mustapha explained that the issue was taken to Cabinet and a decision was made for President Irfaan Ali to intervene. He noted that President Ali did intervene in the matter and progress has been made.
According to the Minister, Panama has since accepted that it indeed owes Guyana the outstanding sum and asked for some time before the debt could be settled.
“They have acknowledged their debt to Guyana, and they asked for some time, hopefully before the year is out, to pay the $1.9 billion, with interest,” he disclosed during an interview with Globespan on Monday evening.
The Minister said that Panama has also indicated that it is interested in continuing the rice contract that was started in 2018, even though it was suspended over payment issues.

Meanwhile, Mustapha highlighted that there were no clear-cut policies by the previous APNU/AFC Administration regarding agricultural development.
“Let me be very frank, the agriculture sector in our country was like a rudderless ship in water without a captain.”
He posited that the officers who are employed in the agriculture sector should not be blamed for the decay, but the politicians who were tasked with setting policies etc.
He explained that immediately when he took over as Minister of the sector, he called meetings and set clear-cut guidelines and policies for every department within the Ministry.
Additionally, since almost every area in the sector was “ignored” over the past five years, he said that he went to the Cabinet to request funds to pay staff at GuySuCo and to do urgent drainage and irrigation works in various areas.
It was reported that the money owed by Panama is from contracts signed in 2018 and 2019 for rice shipments from Guyana to Panama.
The rice was shipped by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and a partial payment of US$550,000 was made for the 2018 contracts but absolutely no payments were made for 2019.
The partial payment was used to pay rice millers in 2018 and the GRDB would have had to use their own money to pay rice millers afterwards. It was also highlighted that the GRDB has a liability of $4.7 million and the delay in payments from Panama is a hanging threat to their revenue.
It was said that the Panamanian Government market offers a higher price than other markets; however, payments are sometimes delayed due to Government processes.