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Millers can pay farmers better prices- Minister Ramsammy- Gov’t optimistic about rice exports to Venezuela

Mar 18, 2014 News

It is the belief of Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy that millers can pay farmers better prices for their paddy.
He added that when the Venezuela agreement is finalised, the Ministry will give priority to the millers who paid farmers a reasonable sum for their paddy.
The Minister made this response to farmers’ complaints of low prices they are receiving for their paddy.
The Minister, in an interview on Friday, said that this issue seems to have become an annual feature. Prices are not set by the government, but by the millers.
“The Government of Guyana does not set the price; these are private sector ventures. Rice is done mainly by farmers. Private farmers and the millers are private businessmen,” he said.
“We have been talking to the millers; it is my belief that the millers can pay a better price than they are paying at this early stage. It’s very early right now and harvesting is just starting.
“Our indication is that in Essequibo the millers are paying somewhere between apparently $8000 and $8800 …and some farmers are getting about $3000,” he said while noting that the price also depends on the quality.
“I believe that the millers are taking advantage of the contract with Venezuela. The shipment to Venezuela has not started, but we as a Government will make sure that the millers who treat farmers more fairly are the ones who get priority when it comes to selling rice to Venezuela. We are going to take that into consideration.”
“We cannot force the millers or the farmers what price one should pay or one should sell at, we can only facilitate and advise and that’s what we are doing right now,” he added.
Noting that these individuals sell their products to international markets, he said, ”They all sell rice to individuals in the markets that we would have in Jamaica, Europe etc. The only place where we as a Government sell rice is Venezuela”..
“Last year at this time we had similar problems, because Venezuela had not signed the contract until late … I believe was April by the time Venezuela signed the agreement. Once that was signed everything moved smoothly.”
He added that advances have been made towards this agreement; however it will take some time to negotiate everything. “All that usually takes a long way of completing it, all that we are waiting for now is for Venezuela to sign a purchase order indicating to us that we should start shipment, that we have also made some advances on, and I do not want to give at the moment any kind of false hope to anyone, but I expect that should be done shortly,” he added.
He acknowledged that Guyana has managed to secure shipments to some other countries. “As of now we have made arrangements to ship about 1500 tonnes every week to Haiti. We have a small agreement with Belize and we have another country that I am finalising agreements with. That country at present buys mainly from the United States of America, about 120,000 tonnes of rice, and Guyana is hoping to enter that market which will be an entirely new market for us.” (GINA)

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