Dear Editor,
Despite serious concerns ventilated by the Guyana Rice Exporters and Millers Association (GREMA) and numerous huge rice exporters, the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) through its General Manager, Mr Nizam Hassan was adamant that the contract signed on March 1 this year with two Jamaican companies will not limit the export of rice to Jamaica and that the contractual arrangement will be ‘a plus for Guyana’s rice industry’ resulting in an increase in price per tonne of rice.
He had claimed that rice exporters will receive US$400 per tonne of rice as contrasted with the average price per tonne being US$345 to US$370. He reiterated that “Guyanese millers will earn an additional US$30-US$55 per tonne of rice exported to Jamaica or an additional US$2.4 million-US$4.4 million annually” (Guyana Chronicle April 25, 2016).
However, since the implementation of that contract, rice millers and exporters were effectively restricted from exporting to Jamaica because the GRDB implemented quotas and blocked them from selling through their own contractual arrangements as was done previously. The GRDB, therefore, has the final authority to say who should export how much.
Moreover, GREMA had also said that the contractual agreement which the GRDB had entered into with the two Jamaican companies will take the rice industry down the road to financial ruin; this is now a reality since it is now revealed that the price rice exporters are receiving is far less than what they were receiving before this GRDB Jamaica contractual arrangement.
However, the new ‘development’ is that rice exporters are now mandated to submit credit notes to the two Jamaican companies: Jamaica Rice Milling Company Limited and Musson Jamaica Limited to the value of US$30 per tonne of rice exported to these companies.
One rice exporter, K Dyal&Son was required to submit credit notes to the amount of US$22,398. Therefore, in effect, the rice exporters are now getting US$370 per tonne. But this price is not what the rice millers actually received since it is alleged that they are asked by GRDB officials to fork out between US$10-US$20 per tonne – an ‘under table’ arrangement in order to get the contract! Hence, the rice exporters are now getting far below the US$376 that they were getting before the infamous Jamaican contract. They are not getting ‘an additional US$35-US$55 per tonne’ as promised by the GRDB and its GM – they are effectively being shafted.
The Government through the Minister of Agriculture should address this debilitating situation before it is too late. With El Niño, La Niña and declining production, the rice industry could ill-afford this GRDB-induced disaster!
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf
Regional Councillor
– Region 6
