Rice farmers to start receiving outstanding payments from millers

Mar 20, 2014 News

– GRDB provides loan to facilitate process

The Guyana Rice Development Board through the Ministry of Agriculture has provided loans totaling in excess of $300M to pay rice farmers for paddy supplied during the last crop of 2013. Payments to rice farmers are expected to commence today.
This is according to a well placed source in the Agriculture sector, who disclosed that about seven

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Agriculture Minister

rice millers, including Wazir Hussein, Deonarine and Ancient County, owe farmers. The money loaned will be repaid by money earned from the export of rice to Venezuela.
This move comes days after Essequibo rice farmers demanded to have an audience with Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, to air their concerns about the low prices being offered for paddy and outstanding payments owed to them by millers.
However, the issue of millers owing farmers is an old one and the Rice Factories Amendment Bill was expected to safeguard them against unscrupulous millers. The Rice Factories Amendment Bill provides that millers should pay farmers for paddy within 42 days.
According to the Government Information Agency, “Millers have a period of two weeks to pay 50 percent of total sale to individual farmers as opposed to just 50 percent of total paddy sale.
They are also granted an additional 42 days to pay the remainder; failing which they face the possibility of having their licence revoked.
“The Bill amends the Rice Factories Act 1998 with Clause Two seeking to ensure that millers owe no farmer over five percent of the paddy supplied unless approved by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).”
Dr. Ramsammy in a press statement yesterday said that over the past weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture has been engaging rice farmers and millers with the aim of facilitating payments to farmers, who were owed in excess of $300M for rice during the last crop.
“Such a process has been satisfactory and from today, Guyana Rice Development Board is working with millers to commence payment,” he said.
According to the Minister, it is the hope of the Ministry that by next week all farmers who are owed monies will be paid in full.