Fire gutted a bond containing $50M in rice and paddy as well as equipment belonging to D Suklall Rice Industries at De Hoop, Mahaica yesterday afternoon.
Proprietor Deonarine Suklall told Stabroek News that workers would spend the evening trying to save any paddy that they could possibly re-dry and mill later on. He said that his workers had been throwing paddy in the back dam and that a neighbour had noticed the raging fire at around 14:30hrs.
Suklall stated that he was devastated because his mill had contracts with the Guyana Rice Development Board to supply to both Venezuela, under the PetroCaribe barter agreement, and Panama.
He told Stabroek News that while the fire only damaged one of the bonds the other bond had enough paddy and rice to cover the requirements of the contracts. The farmer and miller explained that of the 1500-tonne paddy contract under the Venezuela Rice Agreement the mill still had to ship 400 tonnes and 262 tonnes of rice from the 400-tonne rice deal with Panama.
Suklall stated that “we borrow money from the bank and pay the farmers so we owe the bank right now. One, two small farmers.”
He said that they were waiting on the fire department to identify what may have caused the blaze because there was no activity at the bond for the last two weeks. Suklall said that it was his neighbour who first noticed the fire when it had already engulfed over half the bond.
Stabroek News understands that the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Leslie Ramsammy will be paying a visit to the bond today to speak with Suklall.
