Officials remain tight-lipped about its status
Is the $18.8 million Venezuela rice and paddy deal still on? This is the question being asked following a visit to Venezuela last week by local officials for the purpose of revising the contract. However, they remain tight-lipped on the discussions and their outcome.
The visit to the neighbouring state comes in the context of a report that the first shipment of paddy under the deal had been infested with weevils and had to be fumigated, resulting in the contract having to be revised, although Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager Jagnarine Singh has denied there was any infestation.
Guyana was expected to have sent the last shipment by the first week in February. However, it has been four months since the signing of the deal, which should have seen 50,000 tonnes of paddy and rice shipped to Venezuela. As it is, only one shipment has been sent.
The first consignment of about 5,000 tonnes of paddy was loaded for the neighbouring state last December after a string of delays. These delays were reported to have been related to the late arrival of the vessel, the Pacific Clipper. GRDB General Manager Jagnarine Singh later confirmed the arrival of the first shipment and said the second was being prepared.
Almost two months after the arrival of the first delivery Stabroek News learnt from GRDB Deputy General Manager Madanlall Ramraj that owing to issues encountered during the first shipment the Venezuela contract would be revised. Ramraj made this disclosure on February 24 in response to questions which this newspaper sent to Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and which were then forwarded to him.
Ramraj in his correspondence further said: “The revision should include price, delayed time in off-loading, conditions for shipping white rice among others.” Neither the GRDB nor the Ministry of Agriculture, despite questions, elaborated on the “issues” which had been encountered during last December’s shipment.
A team, Ramraj had further stated, would visit Venezuela to discuss the terms of revision. The team comprised Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA) General Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj, a GRDB representative and several rice exporters/millers.
The team visited Venezuela from March 1 to 3. Despite several efforts, Stabroek News has not been able to establish whether Venezuela still wants our rice and if they do, to what extent the contract has been altered. Although GRDB Deputy Manager Ramraj confirmed that Seeraj was included in the team, when contacted the GRPA General Secretary said he could not help.
“I don’t know anything about that [the Venezuela] deal,” Seeraj said; “I’ll have to do some research and get back to you.”
It was Dr Turhane Doerga, Chief Executive Officer of Alesie Group of Companies, who told Stabroek News on Friday that when the first consignment of paddy arrived in Venezuela it was discovered that it had weevils, as a result of which it was fumigated.
Doerga claims to have been told this by GRDB General Manager Singh. However, Singh has since denied this.
Referring to the Venezuela deal Doerga said, “This is just another way they [the government] are fooling the Guyanese public.”
The CEO further said that his company should have had a representative in the team which travelled to Venezuela last week, and he feels that Alesie was deliberately excluded from the group.
When he contacted Singh about the trip, Doerga said, he was told that GRDB Quality Control Manager Allison Peters was dealing with those arrangements, and she should be contacted. However, when she was contacted, Doerga alleged, she referred him back to the General Manager.
His company, Doerga said, had been in the business for three generations and was willing to offer the industry its expertise. He insisted that qualified persons who should be dealing with certain things were being overlooked and those with connections were being given preference.
Further, Doerga noted that the prices which were accepted from Venezuela would only see farmers being given $2,000 for a bag of paddy. GRPA General Secretary Seeraj had told Stabroek News earlier that millers had pledged to pay $3,000. These were millers whom GRDB General Manager Singh said had pledged to produce various amounts in order to supply Venezuela.
El Nino is also another factor which would affect our ability to supply Venezuela, Doerga observed. The Ministry of Agriculture, he said, was aware since early last year that we would face these conditions and more should have gone into preparing for this searing heat which had already eaten up the crops of many farmers.
Contacted about Doerga’s comments, Singh denied the Alesie CEO’s claim about the first shipment being infested with weevils.
“That’s his problem,” Singh said; “He can continue spreading rumours.”
Doerga and the GRDB have had run-ins regarding payments. Doerga’s name had appeared twice in a GRDB debtors’ list published in the April 26, 2009 edition of the Guyana Chronicle, although he had denied owing the GRDB. He was cited as the owner of Grains (Guy) Limited and Agriman Incorporated as owing the GRDB $10,064,378 and $21,809,696 respectively. The rice miller was listed as “T. Dorega” and the GRDB General Manager later confirmed that the debtor was indeed Doerga. At the time Singh had said that the GRDB was considering taking legal action against Doerga and the other debtors who together owed $149M.
Stabroek News went on to question Singh about the status of the Venezuela deal on Friday but he said he was at a meeting with farmers and couldn’t speak about it at the time. When this newspaper contacted him via telephone he was again unable to comment about the deal’s status and asked that we call him again. Several efforts to reach Singh subsequently proved futile.
Late in the evening of October 21 last year the Ministry of Agriculture had called an urgent press conference to announce the signing of the Venezuela deal. Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, Head of the Corporation of Supplies and Agricultural Services (CASA) of Venezuela Colonel Rudolpho Marco Torres, Singh and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GRDB Nigel Dharamlall along with other Venezuelan officials were present at the signing of the contract.
Weeks after the deal was signed Singh admitted that it would be difficult to meet the demand but that he remained optimistic. The rice and paddy should have been supplied from the last rice crop. However, this wasn’t done and with El Nino eating up more and more of the current crop it is not certain what will become of the Venezuela deal.
