Issues encountered during the first shipment last December resulted in the decision to amend the current contract. Price, delays in off-loading, conditions for shipping white rice and a number of other factors will be discussed and decided before exports can resume under the deal.
Deputy General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Madanlall Ramraj recently told Stabroek News that the Guyanese team will be in Venezuela from March 7 to 10.
The members will include a GRDB representative, General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA) Dharamkumar Seeraj and several millers/exporters.
According to Ramraj, meetings were held with millers prior to and on February 24 to finalize the arrangements for the trip.
Exports were originally expected to be completed by the first week of February.
However, with the continuous delays the first shipment, scheduled to depart that November, didn’t leave for Venezuela aboard the Pacific Clipper until late last December. Its arrival was later confirmed by GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh in early January.
Singh had reported that the first shipment (approximately 5,000 tonnes of paddy) had arrived in Venezuela and that they were preparing for the second. He had further said, “It is clear that we may have to renegotiate the quantity or the shipping schedule, as we may not have shipped the entire quantity.”
The General Manager had earlier expressed doubts that Guyana would be able to meet its end of the bargain.
He had said that it was a difficult task to supply Venezuela and the “full cooperation” of farmers and millers would be needed. Now almost two months after its first shipment Guyana has been unable to send a second and is renegotiating the terms of the deal.
Guyana and Venezuela inked the US$18.8M ($3.7B) rice purchase agreement on October 21, 2009. The Agriculture Ministry had disclosed that 10,000 tonnes of white rice and 40,000 tonnes of paddy would be exported.
The export price for paddy, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud had said, would be US$330 per metric tonne (covering cost and freight) while for the “five per cent broken” white rice, the cost would be US$560 per tonne.
Stabroek News could not ascertain whether the revision of the contract’s terms would result in a reduction in the original prices agreed on.
The GRDB has offered no further details regarding the current decision to revise the contract.
Millers were responsible for shipping the rice to Venezuela and had promised the GRPA that farmers would be paid $3000 for a bag of paddy. Before the deal was inked with Venezuela the GRDB had contacted millers who then pledged to produce the various amounts to be exported to that country.
