Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday said that a deal with Venezuela for 200,000 tonnes of rice and padi this year is near closure and he warned millers to be fair to farmers.
The rice industry has recently been under stress as there are large amounts of paddy and rice on the hand with few available markets. With the first crop set to flood the market, farmers face lower prices and growers on both the Essequibo and Corentyne