Dear Editor,
I learnt that the rice magnate Mr Turhane Doerga of the Alesie Rice Group is shutting shop after 25 years in the rice and paddy business.
There is no doubt that the rice industry is now facing difficult times since the Venezuelan market was lost; millers and farmers are in deep trouble trying to keep their businesses above water because the cost of production is too high and there are no subsidies; duty free concessions are a thing of the past. Simple things like jute bags, twine and ‘polly’ bags are hard to get; the cost of fuel has skyrocketed; millers’ wear and tear is very costly and sometimes their profits are minimal. The farmers are barely surviving; year round they have to borrow money from the bank in order to go back to the land with the hope that things would be better, but instead of getting better they are getting worse.
Since the Minister of Agriculture assumed office nothing has changed for the better. In my honest opinion he has no vision for the industry and the future of the country. We have too many government officers in the agriculture sector sitting behind their desks when they should have been in the fields advising farmers. Agriculture is the backbone of this country and there is no doubt it is failing drastically. There is no policy to drive agriculture forward; there is no market for farmers’ produce, whether it’s rice, cash crops, fish, sugar or livestock; there is more talk than action. Lately I was made to understand that some millers on the Essequibo Coast still owed farmers huge sums of money for their produce sold over decades. These same millers are buying out rice mills from Wakenaan and other parts of the coast.
If this is true, rice farmers are doomed, because the monopoly these millers have will send the prices down for paddy and they might have to leave their land abandoned for the coming crop. The government will have to act quickly or rice will end up like sugar. I cannot blame Mr Doerga for selling out his assets; no businessman will work for a loss, but with 300 more employees on the breadline there will be more crimes and broken homes. At the moment the best prices for paddy this crop are EX-A- $2,400,A B C $ 2,300 and below C Grade the millers and farmers will have to decide on a price. Farmers will find it hard to go back to their land; they would not be able to recover their expenses if the cost of input is too high.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
