Seven thousand tonnes (140,000 bags) of urea fertilizer is on its way from Venezuela for farmers in Guyana.
A release from the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday said that the fertilizer will be available to farmers by Monday, November 24th. The release said that the Ministry of Agriculture has mandated the Guyana Rice Development Board and the Guyana Rice Producers Association to ensure that farmers access the fertilizer at a cost no greater than $5,000 per bag and to explore possibilities of a cost under $5,000 per bag.
The release said that the imminent arrival of the 7,000 tons of urea from Venezuela is another component of the PetroCaribe concessionary oil arrangement.
However, Guyana is paying cash from advances being made through the Government of Guyana. (GOG)
The release said that the GOG wanted to ensure the availability of urea at this price because the price being charged by the private sector has again been creeping up.
The release added that the arrangement for procurement of fertilizer on behalf of farmers is a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture, the GRDB and the RPA.
Some of the fertilizer will be available to cash crop farmers, but most of it will be used by rice farmers around the country. During the 2nd crop of 2013, the GOG offered fertilizer at $5,000 per bag at a time when the price had risen to between $7,000 and $8,000 in the private sector, the release said. Since then the price stabilized at about $5,200 in the private sector, but has moved up in recent months. In the first crop of 2014, the price had climbed closer to $6,000 per bag, but in a partnership with the RPA, the GOG was able to offer farmers urea at $5,200 per bag in a subsidized programme.
The rice industry presently has reached almost 90% land preparation for the next rice crop (the 1st of 2015), the release disclosed.
With greater than 97% of the 2014 harvesting completed, Guyana’s rice production stands at 627,463 tons of rice.
The release said that in 2014, so far, Guyana has exported 423,900 tons and it has contracts for 2014 delivery of 90,176 tons. This means, the release said, that Guyana would eclipse 500,000 tons for 2014.
The release said that Panama has become an important new market. Haiti, a market in which Guyana has been on and off is growing at this time.
Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and other destinations have been added, the release noted.
However, one challenge remains as an important constraint. The industry cash flow of almost $50B has proven to be a big challenge for rice millers.
“The consequence is payment to rice farmers continue to be a major barrier in the industry. The Government of Guyana has ensured we support the process and we have made advances to allow some ease of the problem. The Government is working with the Bankers association and millers to increase their credit available to them; this is in an effort to ensure a more timely payment to farmers”, the release added.
The first crop of 2014 saw payments made to farmers of about $25B, the release said, adding.that even though there was a significant delay in payment, almost all payments have been made except for about $200M, more than half of which the GOG has stepped in to pay off.
In the second crop, almost $24B of sales were made by farmers and millers have so far paid about $17B, the release disclosed.
