Millers who suffered millions of dollars in losses after Guyana lost the lucrative rice market in neighboring Venezuela back in 2015, have continued to seek assistance from the government.
Today, a group of millers from Essequibo who suffered in excess of $800M, met with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha at his Farmers’ Open Day.
The millers said that they had purchased large quantities of paddy with the expectation of exporting to Venezuela, but were forced sell their paddy on the local market for less than half the cost they paid.
Ramesh Ramlakhan, one of the millers who met with the Minister, said he had to sell his paddy at a loss after the Venezuelan market collapsed.
“After the Venezuelan market collapsed we had this stock and we had to sell the stock at less than half the price so we end up at a loss. When we didn’t get those payments, we lost the capital but we still owed the bank. Everyone that has a rice mill has an overdraft or a loan to the bank. There’s a commitment there where the bank is still charging us interest,” Mr. Ramlakhan said.
Another miller, Wazir Hussain said he is currently engaged in court cases with the bank for monies owed.
“There was a quota system set up. If you purchased, for instance, 100,000 bags of paddy, 30% would be shipped to Venezuela. The rest would be sold to other international markets. As it is now, it is very difficult. The bank took me to court. I have a court hearing almost every month. I have another court date in March and if I lose I might lose my place. I also had 28 containers of rice that I delivered to the Rice Board in May/June of 2015 and still haven’t received payment,” Mr. Hussain said.
After listening to their concerns, Minister Mustapha said that government is aware of the issue and is looking at ways to offer some form of assistance to the farmers.
“We’re looking at ways to help millers both from the financial institution aspect and from the government level but I cannot make a commitment today on what we will do. It’s a lot of money so as a government we have work on a mechanism to assist millers who were affected when the market collapsed under the previous administration. In the meantime, I’ve asked my officers from GRDB to get a list of all the millers who were affected. I’ll be meeting with the Guyana Rice Millers’ Association soon to discuss this and a number of other issues,” Minister Mustapha said.
The subject Minister also told the millers that he will continue to engage Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh on a way forward.
The millers also sought an update on monies owed from Panama for rice exported in 2018 and 2019.
Minister Mustapha informed the group that he is scheduled to have another meeting with the Panamanian Minister of Agriculture soon to get an update on the matter. He also stated that government has also engaged it international agencies to assist with recouping the funds owed.
Following the meeting, Mr. Ramlakhan said that he was happy to finally have an audience with the Minister of Agriculture after several attempts were made to have meetings with the previous subject Minister.
“We couldn’t reach him. He never wanted to meet with us and nobody listened to us. I’m happy there is a new government with a Minister that is open to listening to us so that we can get some sort of assistance. We still owe farmers and we want to be able to pay them because they have families too,” Mr. Ramlakhan said.
