Over two years have passed and the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) is yet to deliver on its obligation to pay rice millers and operators for rice exported to Panama since 2015.
There also seems to be no clear indication as to whether any concrete move would be made to ensure that the millers and operators were given their payments any time soon.
GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan
Guyana Times spoke with GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan last week and was told to call back, but several calls went unanswered. On Tuesday, another call was made to Hassan, who referred this newspaper to the Guyana Rice Millers Association (GRMA).
The GRDB Head was reluctant to provide any information regarding the issue and insisted that the GRMA would have information about payments, even though the GRDB was the entity responsible for such arrangements.
Contact was also made with GRMA Head Leekha Rambrich, who told this newspaper that a meeting was held a few weeks ago and a promise was made to start delivering on payment.
Rambrich, who also happens to be the GRDB Vice Chairman, said that no payment has been made so far. He could not say when these payments would be made, but hinted that it may be soon.
The official also referred this publication to Hassan, stating that as chairman, he would have readily available information on all payments to rice millers and operators.
“GRDB signed a contract with Panama to supply this rice and not the millers. And GRDB is responsible for paying the millers. So that question has to be referred right back to him (Hassan),” he stated.
Agriculture Minister Noel Holder told Guyana Times recently that while he was not familiar with the specific issue, most of the international sales of rice were done between buyers and sellers.
The GRDB, he said, has an important role to ensure that certification is in place, and in the case of the financial arrangements between the two countries for these shipments, it would involve the boards.
“And in these things, Governments are not necessarily the quickest payers. Why? Not because they don’t have money, but because the system has to go through a certain way and regulations and what GRDB tends to do is if millers are in stress, they try to advance monies to these millers,” he explained.
A rice shipment leaving a local wharf
However, this is clearly not the case in this particular incident. In most cases, once the millers are not paid, payment to rice farmers themselves was also affected.
Broken promise
Meanwhile, Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA) Head Dharamkumar Seeraj reiterated that the Government has failed to honour its promises of betterment for rice millers and exporters. He also explained that it has been over two years since these rice millers have been awaiting payment.
Previously, the RPA had said that it believed the GRDB was in a sound financial position based on the amount of levies collected from exports over the years to pay these millers either fully or at least a substantial amount of the total due.
The rice farmers’ representative body noted that the sector was severely affected by the amount owed to the millers/exporters, adding that some of them were on the verge of bankruptcy while others could not invest in the further development of their facilities. The body explained that the failure to pay the millers/exporters would affect the efficiency of the industry as well as profitability.
According to the RPA, payments to suppliers for rice will better serve the industry than “the squandering of the GRDB money over ill-thought projects that are absolute failures. The failure of the GRDB, a Government agency, to pay the millers is another betrayal of another campaign promise by the coalition Government of the APNU/AFC [A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change].”
In August of 2014, Guyana was able to ink a five-year deal with the Government of Panama for 5000 tonnes of rice per month. At the time of signing the agreement, the Agriculture Ministry said Panama imports about 150,000 tonnes of rice annually, through the Private Sector and the agreement between the two Governments was to ensure Panamanians had access to rice at an affordable price. (Samuel Sukhnandan)
