| – bailout could reach $25B Longstanding members of the local rice industry, despite criticisms and rejections by the Government, maintain that the local rice industry “is finding itself in deeper crisis following the drastic reduction of the VenezuelanDr. Turhane Doerga (left) and Jinnah Rahmanquota.”Following a special meeting between top Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) officials and millers/exporters at the Agricultural Ministry earlier this week, senior members of the Rice Producers Action Committee (RPAC) reported that the price of rice to Venezuela has been reduced by US$60 per metric ton. “This new price – from $520 to $460 per ton – was given (GRDB’s General Manager) Mr. Jaganarine Singh.”Members of the RPAC are adamant that Government’s current management of the rice industry is running rice farmers bankrupt.Chairman of RPAC Jinnah Rahman stated that the administration “has no permanent solution to the problems facing the rice industry” and charged that with limited rice markets and price reduction, they are “making false promises to rice farmers hoping that they will accept their silly promises and get them to vote.”General elections are set to be held on May 11.Rahman believed that with the current situation, “the Government must rescue farmers by releasing more than $25 Billion held in the PetroCaribe Fund – which is a well-guarded secret.”He said that the average rice farmer is on the bread line with less than G$3000 per paddy bag.“Eighty-six percent of 600,000 tons rice production this crop equals to 516,000 Metric tons – equivalent to (15.75 bags in a metric ton), which is equal to 8,127,000 bags of paddy at G$3,000 per bag = approximate $25 Billion (GY) or $122 Million US.”According to Rahman, the Government has already expended $5.1 Billion to rice farmers,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, without disclosing where the money came from and who got it. Those millers not closely knit to the administration “will therefore not buy paddy at previous crop prices, which is already low and unacceptable.”Identifying further disturbances in the industry,Wholesale Adidas Hockey Jerseys, Dr. Turhane Doerga, Coordinator of RPAC and a trader on the international commodity market,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, noted that in Tuesday’s meeting, Madanlall Ramraj, GRDB’s Deputy GM told attendees that Guyana “almost did not get the (2015) Venezuela contract because of garbage paddy shipped.”Junior Agriculture Minister, Ali Baksh,NFL Cheap Jerseys, who sat in for Minister Leslie Ramsammy, told millers that Venezuela bought about 240,000 metric tons for the entire year. “This means that 120,Wholesale NFL Jerseys,000 metric tons for this crop amounts to 28 percent of our yearly production. There is no other reliable market for the rice.”Minister Baksh, according to Doerga, set alarm bells off when he disclosed that there is over 100,000 tons of the previous crop in stock.The rice expert contended that the PPP-Administration is engaging in “voodoo Mathematics” since 28 percent of the yearly production is 28 percent of this incoming crop alone – which is 120,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys,000 Metric tons. It means that with the rollover stock, none of this crop is sold yet, Dorega concluded.Doerga contended further that “even if we were to accept that 14 percent is sold, it means 86 percent of the incoming crop is unsold. This means that millers would not want to gamble and buy the farmers paddy, when there is no guarantee that there will be market for rice or paddy in the short or medium term.”There was no mention of the African market during the meeting, Doerga said. He reiterated that there is no other reliable market in sight, “except what millers sell to their local and overseas buyers”.GRDB’s GM told millers that the government was also paid for four Panama shipments, but his Deputy Ramraj quickly intervened and said that only one of the contracts was paid last Friday.Yet Government officials are claiming that there are new contracts with Panama, but no further details were given. Ramraj said also that visits were made to Embassies of Iraq and Poland when they were in Venezuela and the officials there expressed intentions to buy.But Doerga believed that this is ‘hog wash’.”“Poland buys almost all its rice from EBA (Everything But Arms) countries in the Far East; Cambodia, Myanmar, etc, as they have free access to the EU. Iraq, if you are not with the Americans you cannot sell Halliburton deals compliments of George Bush, former US President.”“The government has blatantly lied to rice farmers – placing them into a state of bankruptcy, as is the case with sugar industry and many other sectors of the economy,” the RPA officials opined. |
