Bakers in Antigua and Barbuda are reluctant to purchase and use flour coming out of Guyana’s National Milling Company and prefer instead the more expensive product offered from St Vincent, a report in the Antigua Sun said.
According to a report in the Antigua Sun, the Antigua government has reached an agreement with Guyana’s flourmill to supply flour to Antigua and Barbuda at approximately the same rate that country has proposed to its traditional suppliers.
The newspaper reported on Tuesday that that deal includes a guarantee by the Guyanese mill to maintain that fixed price for the next six months. According to the article, last Friday, Minister of Finance and the Economy Dr Errol Cort announced that a flour supplier in Guyana had agreed to sell Antigua and Barbuda flour at approximately $14 less per 100lb sack than was being offered by the mill in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Managing Director of the National Milling Company of Guyana Bertie Sukhai told this newspaper though his secretary that he would be speaking on the issue at a later date.
The Antigua Sun report said that although the government has sourced a cheaper brand of flour from Guyana by way of derogation of Article 164 of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, spokesperson of the Antigua and Barbuda Bakers’ Association Patrick Colbourne said that some bakers may choose not to purchase it.
The report said that according to Colbourne the flour from St Vincent is of a “much better quality and therefore believe their baked products are better because of it.
The flourmill in Guyana was vocal in its criticism when flour from Trinidad was being sold on the Guyana market for a cheaper price than what the National Milling Company offered and had referred to the situation as ‘dumping’.
The Antigua Sun said it was told that the $14 reflects approximately ten per cent less than the price proposed by the St Vincent mill. The Sun said too that Antigua and Barbuda has agreed to source no more than 50 per cent of its flour from outside the OECS sub-region.
“Importers of flour could avail themselves to the cheaper source that we have been able to find and bring the flour in from that particular source,” the Antigua Sun quoted Cort, Antigua Minister of Finance and the Economy as saying. The Sun said he noted that it is now up to the importers to make use of the deal secured by the government.
Cort, the Sun said, explained that the government, through Trade Co-ordinator Ambassador Clarence Henry, has been exploring other Caricom flour producers to source less expensive flour, and turned to Guyana after Trinidad recently saw a 40 per cent increase in its flour prices. One of Trinidad’s mills announced a temporary closure, which led to a scarcity of flour in the country. Cort said there was insufficient flour available from that market to supply Antigua’s needs.
The report said that the government has been unsuccessful in getting flourmills in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada to come down from their decision to impose an increase on the price of flour at the rate of 36.2 per cent and 39.1 per cent respectively.
This was despite the intervention and mediation attempt by Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington.
According to the article, Cort said that he spoke with Carrington last Friday and was advised that the Secretary General’s effort to get a compromise position from the mills had been futile.
“He did his best to seek to effect the 25 per cent increase proposed by Antigua and Barbuda but unfortunately, he was unable to get agreement by the mills,” Cort was quoted as saying, commending Carrington for his efforts to bring about a resolution to the conflict.
