Mahaicony Rice Limited (MRL), after an alarming winding down period, commenced buying paddy on Monday and will be supplying Venezuela under the recent US$38 million deal.
The decision to buy paddy comes after MRL had reduced staff and halted operations at its Black Bush Polder (BBP), Blairmont and Vilvoorden offices causing alarm among farmers countrywide.
In an advertisement published in the Sunday’s edition of this newspaper MRL said it will commence buying paddy for the current crop at the following six locations: Vilvoorden and Paradise in Region Two; Mahaicony and Cane Grove in Region Five and BBP and Number 70 Village in Region Six.
This, MRL further said in the advertisement, is in keeping with an arrangement it made with the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB). The GRDB agrees that MRL will supply paddy for sale to Venezuela; that all proceeds from these sales with the GRDB’s assistance will be paid to farmers directly through a special account; and that weekly payments will be made to farmers to settle all the outstanding debts. MLR said.
Over the last six months, since the first crop this year, MRL has failed to pay between 200 and 300 farmers approximately $240 million for paddy. The Ministry of Agriculture had subsequently announced that MRL would be audited and continuous efforts had been made to help the company find a way to pay farmers.
In a recently signed contract between the GRDB and MRL a payment scheme has been agreed on and a special account will also be established in which payments for the paddy supplied to Venezuela will be deposited. Guyana will start supplying the neighbouring state with rice and paddy next month.
The account will be jointly managed by MRL and the GRDB, a Government Information Agency (GINA) release said on Sunday, and the funds will be used to pay farmers. This account, Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud explained at a meeting with Region Five farmers on Saturday, will make provision for both old and new farmer accounts to be settled.
It is the government’s policy, Persaud said, that farmers must be paid on time and millers honour their obligations. Legislation, he said, had been passed to support ways in which the industry can be restructured from a trade standpoint. He added that although the government does not favour a monopoly it was not its intention to send anyone out of business since farmers need millers and their facilities as well.
MRL, Persaud recently said, has been having difficulties with its external operations. The company, according to him, has since indicated that its difficulties have caused a problem with cash flow locally.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Rice Producers’ Association (RPA) Dharamkumar Seeraj, speaking at a meeting with millers last Friday, noted an earlier comment by MRL General Manager Taramattie Ghani about his organisation playing politics.
He again stressed that nothing about the rice issue had been handled politically.
MRL, he had stated, has taken on more than it can handle and farmers were last on its list of people to pay.
He also added that while the RPA is concerned with promoting the best interest of the farmers it did not want to see MRL or any other mill close operations. This, Seeraj stressed, is the last thing the RPA wants to see happen.
