The Mahaicony Rice Limited (MRL), which up to late August owed farmers in Regions Five and Six $290M, still has about $58M outstanding and is expected to complete a portion of the payment by early this week.
Madanlall Ramraj, Deputy General Manager (DGM) of the Guyana Rice Develop-ment Board (GRDB), told Stabroek News on Friday he’d learnt that MRL still owed farmers in Region Five $18M and those in Region Six were owed approximately $40M. This information, Ramraj said, was given to him by the company’s General Manager Taramati Ghani.
“I spoke with MRL’s General Manager (Thursday) and I was told the company plans to complete payments to the Region Five farmers early next week,” Ramraj reported.
After the company completes payments to the Region Five farmers, the DGM said, then MRL would concentrate on paying the larger sum owed to the farmers in Region Six. He gave no indication of a timeframe within which MRL is expected to clear the Region Six debt of about $48M.
A Government Information Agency (GINA) press release issued on August 18 had informed that MRL’s delay in paying farmers was causing unease in the industry and was affecting farmers’ ability to invest in the second crop. However, Ramraj assured on Friday that the target for the second crop has been met and harvesting has already commenced.
The press release had reported the results of a meeting dealing with the MRL payment issue. Present at the meeting were Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud, General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA) Dharamkumar Seeraj and Chief Executive Officer of MRL Jai Beni.
According to that GINA release, “Persaud pointed out that all stakeholders, including the GRDB and the sector Ministry, have shared unease regarding the non-responsiveness of the MRL to the concerns resulting from its treatment” of farmers. Beni, GINA said, has since assured that “he was looking into the matter seriously and making necessary institutional and management changes to ensure the company is more responsive to its obligations to farmers”.
Persaud, according to GINA, had informed that MRL through its General Manager Ghani “pledged to settle all outstanding payments to farmers for the first crop before harvesting of the second crop for this year”. The GRPA and the GRDB were given the responsibility of monitoring the situation.
GRPA General Secretary Seeraj told Stabroek News on Thursday, that MRL was originally given a deadline of September 30 to complete all payments to farmers. However, with the first week of October gone and harvesting already underway MRL was unable to honour its promise. Seeraj, though, was confident that MRL would complete all payments.
Last July MRL had owed farmers almost $2B. The company has been described by key officials in the industry as being “the largest and consequently, most indispensible operator in the sector”.