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Guyana owed US$1.1 billion for rice shipment to Panama
– had requested IICA’s intervention
Kaieteur News – To date, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) is yet to receive an outstanding payment of over a $1 billion from the Government of Panama to satisfy a debt incurred by Panama for a rice shipment.
The Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, has stated that he still remains committed to retrieving the sums owed, and has requested the assistance of Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd, to spearhead talks. The Minister had stated that he had spoken with the Panamanian Ministry of Agriculture, which acknowledged in writing that there is an outstanding amount and made commitments to pay it. However, he said that the GRDB is still awaiting payments.
The minister had noted last year that the current delay in receiving the payment was due to the failure of the former Government to do so in a timely manner. The rice was shipped by the GRDB on behalf of local millers who are required to pay an export commission. But according to the Agriculture Minister, some $1.184 billion is owed by Panama for the rice.
GRDB has even been delinquent with collecting the export commissions, with over $350 million outstanding. According to Mustapha, “initial checks reveal a delay in payments of commission to the Board by millers. At the end of July [2020], millers owed $353,925,513.”
The Panama rice market was secured under then Agriculture Minister, Leslie Ramsammy, back in 2014. But under APNU+AFC, there have been controversies that featured the Panama market. One such controversy was in 2018, when a shipment of rice from Guyana was rejected on arrival in Panama since it did not meet the stipulated specification outlined by that country.
Minister Mustapha on the 22nd of January said the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) was invited to assist Guyana in retrieving the $1.1 billion owed to rice millers by the Panamanian authorities and that the intervention of the regional body would hopefully lead to the conclusion of the matter. “Hopefully, shortly the Minister of Agriculture of Panama and myself, will have a meeting on this matter. I am optimistic that after that meeting, we can have the payment.”
Guyana had shipped a substantial amount of rice to Panama and two contracts were signed; one in 2018 and another in 2019. However, only partial payment has been made on the 2018 agreement to date.
On November 27, 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had dispatched a letter to the Government there indicating the need for urgency in honouring the obligations to Guyana. Consequently, Panama acknowledged the arrears and has since committed to making the payment, but to date no such payment has been made.
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