T&T mills seeking to bring local company down …Sukhai
The National Milling Company (NAMILCO) could seek legal recourse through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to halt what the company says is the ‘dumping’ of flour on the local market by two regional flour producers.
Speaking with Stabroek Business earlier this week NAMILCO Managing Director Bert Sukhai named National Flour Mills (NFM) and Caribbean Flour Mills (CFM) of Trinidad and Tobago as the two companies which have been seeking to expand their share of the local flour market by exporting flour to Guyana at cheaper prices than were being offered in the twin-island Republic and below the price being offered by the local company.
“These companies have the mills and the capacity to take over the entire market here and in doing what they are doing they are hoping to bring NAMILCO down,” Sukhai said.
Sukhai said that while flour produced in Trinidad and Tobago was being sold in that country at US$37 per bag, it was being marketed here at less than US$30 per 45-kg bag, the current local price for flour produced by NAMILCO. According to Sukhai NAMILCO is currently supplying the local market with flour at a cheaper price than is paid anywhere else in the region. He said that flour was currently being sold in Jamaica at US$38 per 45 kg bag.
“Our dilemma is that despite the fact that NAMILCO’s prices are the cheapest in any regional market, flour from Trinidad and Tobago is imported into Guyana and sold at a price that is cheaper than ours,” Sukhai said.
“The dumping of flour on the local market has created a squeeze on NAMILCO since when the flour is marketed here below our prices we have difficulties in marketing our own flour. The strategy is simply to eat into the market.”
Sukhai told Stabroek Business that NAMILCO had raised the issue with government here and that the next step was for government to address the issue with COTED the regional body responsible for investigating and ruling on charges of unfair trading practices. He said that he had written to government several times requesting meetings to discuss the issue but that up until now his letters had gone unanswered.
And according to Sukhai while NAMILCO was still pursuing the option of a possible resolution through discussions with the government a point may well be reached where NAMILCO may have to resort to legal action through the regional court. Sukhai said that he had raised the issue with President Bharrat Jagdeo at a recent meeting and that the President had indicated that he does not agree with dumping. “Based on that, I am hoping that the relevant Ministry will begin to look at the issue. I am sure that with enough pressure the flour mills in Trinidad will cease the practice,” Sukhai added.
NAMILCO has already begun to seek legal advice on the CCJ option and Sukhai told Stabroek Business that while one section of legal opinion had advised the company that it would be necessary to have its case taken to the CCJ by the government of Guyana, NAMILCO was following developments in the current Trinidad Cement Ltd. (TCL) case currently before the CCJ. “If TCL succeeds by going to the CCJ then we will do the same thing,” Sukhai said.
Sukhai dismissed as ‘short-sighted” the argument which he said was being made for the continued importation of the cheaper flour from Trinidad and Tobago. “We want people to understand that if you shut down a local industry like NAMILCO you then have a major problem in assuring supplies of flour in Guyana.”
In July last year government moved to open the local market to regional flour imports following an announcement by NAMILCO of a 13 per cent price increase. Sukhai said that thereafter, what began as the importation of a “few containers” :of flour from Trinidad and Tobago grew significantly by October when, first, NFM then CFM began exporting larger quantities of flour to Guyana forcing NAMILCO to reduce its prices.
