Following a series of stories in this newspaper about the high rice price, the government yesterday announced that two outlets will be opened on Monday to sell the staple below the current price which has stung consumers.
The initiative has been taken by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the New Guyana Marketing Corporation and the Guyana Rice Develop-ment Board (GRDB) following the more than doubling of the price of rice.
The initiative is also aimed at detecting problems along the supply chain that are driving the prices up since the mill gate prices fall far below what is quoted on the retail market.
Speaking at a meeting with millers and other persons at his office yesterday, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said that the move will seek to trace the source of the rising prices and ensure that persons are not made to pay unnecessarily high prices.
He said that the depots will demonstrate that rice could be sold at a reasonable price.
“By Monday, two depot points in Georgetown will be making rice available to the public at a [lower price],” the Minister said.
The two outlets will be at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Brickdam Office (Croal Street entrance) and the GRDB’s Cowan Street office. The Minister said that later the initiative will be extended to other parts of the country, like Linden, Region 3 and Region 6.
“We will buy from the millers and work out a system,” the Minister said. But he said that this ‘quick fix’ will not be aiming to displace existing distribution systems.
According to the Minister, he called the meeting with the millers to ensure that there was an adequate supply of the product for the local market, and at a competitive price, while meeting obligations to markets overseas.
“We have to monitor exports. We were looking at the situation and in November last year when we saw the number of exports escalate,” the Minister said. “We will now be more focused with processing of exports, but we want to ensure that rice is available for the local market,” the Minister said.
Persaud said that the GRDB will be in constant contact with the millers to ensure that they are doing what is asked of them in terms of meeting local demand.
According to the Minister, local consumption is 55,000 tonnes a year. He said that Guyana is satisfying the Jamaica market which has a demand for 40,000 to 42,000 tonnes per year and this is increasing.
He said that Guyana now has a total of 9,000 tonnes available for the coming month and of this 5,000 will be the consumption requirement for Guyana while a surplus of 4,000 will be left.
He said that the Essequibo crop will be the first to come to harvest and this will be around February 6. “We should have 129,000 tonnes for the first crop of 2008,” said the Minister, adding that this crop should put Guyana in greater comfort in terms of the supply level.
To the millers, Persaud said: “We know what you have in your mill, but we want it to go out at the same time. Hopefully the increased supply will have an effect on the price.” One miller had accused the GRDB of not properly monitoring local needs, resulting in supply and demand driving up prices severely.
At Liloutie Singh’s Grocery in Bourda Market, shopkeeper Chatterdeo told this newspaper that he has stopped selling loose rice in the bags, since customers don’t want it. Why is this? The price is too high, customers complain. “People only buying the packaged rice, since it’s cleaner and ready to cook,” Chatterdeo told this newspaper. In times past, packaged rice was considered a premium product, fetching a higher price than loose rice.
He said that the last time that his shop sold loose rice was sometime before the Christmas holidays. He stated that back in November – a mere two months ago – bagged rice sold for around $3,000.
Now the markets display the following: super white rice – $360 a gallon; brown rice – $560 a gallon; and Karibee Rice – $600 a gallon.
“Every week the rice is going up