Over $1 billion is owed by the Panamanian government to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) for rice sold to that country and newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha has committed his ministry to acting immediately to ensure the outstanding payment is made.
Mustapha, while giving an overview on Tuesday of the state of affairs the PPP/C government inherited from the APNU+AFC administration with regard to the Ministry of Agriculture, said that initial checks have revealed a delay in payments of $1,184,198,400.
He noted that this large outstanding sum can adversely affect millers if the payments are not made soon.
The Agriculture Minister highlighted that millers in turn owed $353,925,513 in commission payments to the GRDB. This payment, he explained, could not be met until the millers received payment for the rice supplied.
“My Ministry will act immediately to reverse these situations so that these debts can be paid from Panama,” the Minister assured during the virtual press conference. He added that they intend to meet with the Board to have them work on the millers’ payments as soon as possible.
In 2018, the governments of Guyana and Panama renewed their agreement for the supply of rice to the lucrative Panamanian market for 2019.
The value of that contract was US$5.2 million and saw the supply of 200,000 quintals (equivalent to 9075 tonnes) of white rice being shipped.
In September 2018, 33 containers of parboiled rice instead of white rice was sent to Panama. The shipment was flagged by the Panamanian authorities and returned to Guyana.
In 2014, Guyana sealed a deal with Panama for the supply of 5,000 tonnes of rice per month.
The signing of the 2014 contracts to supply rice to Panama in a Government-to-Government arrangement ensured that Guyana’s rice market continued to expand, with production having risen significantly.
The Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Agriculture and the GRDB, and in collaboration with the RPA, had been working to expand the market for Guyana’s rice and paddy to overseas markets, the statement said.
