Still committed to retrieving the over $1 billion owed by the Panamanian government to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) for rice sold to the country, Minister of Agricultural Zulfikar has requested the assistance of Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd to spearhead talks.
Mustapha told Stabroek News that he has spoken with the Panamanian Ministry of Agriculture, which acknowledged in writing that there is an outstanding amount and made commitments to pay it. However, he said that the GRDB is still awaiting payments.
Mustapha noted that if the APNU+AFC government had followed through and pressed for payments, rice millers could have been paid already.
“It is a year ago since I gave my commitment and started to push for this payment. I have their word on paper that they will pay but we haven’t received any payments as yet,” the Agriculture Minister stressed.
Checks have revealed a delay in payments of $1,184,198,400 by the Panamanian government.
During his first press conference that was held virtually, Mustapha 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.
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 Rice Producers Association, had been working to expand the market for Guyana’s rice and paddy to overseas markets, the statement said.
