Despite a forecast of a bumper 4.75 million bags of paddy for this year’s autumn crop and better international prices, the price for paddy remains atrocious, says the Guyana Rice Producers’ Association (GRPA).

Currently rice farmers are getting at most $1350 per bag of paddy, but the RPA says it is of the firm view that farmers can get $1400 under better payment conditions for this year’s last crop.

General Secretary of the RPA, Dharamkumar Seeraj argued that while the prices for paddy seemed to have stagnated, the prices of inputs were rising daily.

He observed that the situation on the external market had also improved and for the first time in three years, the industry had already signed contracts to supply over 52,000 tons of rice under better payment conditions than the last crop.

Seeraj told reporters yesterday at a press conference that 63,930 hectares of rice were cultivated this crop, comparing favourably to the spring crop 2003 production of 4.4 million bags from 63,570 hectares planted.

But he said a large number of farmers received payments in the form of cheques post-dated in excess of five months, from one company. This, he said effectively meant that at the time of harvesting the autumn crop, farmers would be still receiving payments for spring.

Asked to identify some of the millers, Seeraj pointed out Alesie Group located at Rumzeight West Coast Demerara, among others.

However, when contacted yesterday at the opening of a US$1.2M parboiled rice plant, Turhane Doerga, Chief Executive Officer of Alesie Group of Companies said because of the company’s limited financial resources, farmers were paid with post-dated cheques or given part payments.

He denied that his company would pay farmers with post-dated cheques extending four to five months, saying that his cheques would mature within two to three weeks.

Doerga stated that despite the RPA’s claims, 50% of the farmers who sold paddy to his company were regular suppliers and regardless of any payment delays, those farmers would still sell their paddy to him.

Seeraj said most of the farmers had no other alternative than to sell their paddy to the company, since there were few rice mills in the area.

At the opening yesterday afternoon, Seeraj commended Doerga’s initiative, but called for a more prompt payment system.

He told the gathering that he was happy that the company was in a position to make further investments, but called for such actions to be reflected in its conditions of payments to farmers.

Seeraj said in recent years farmers had not been getting the sort of returns on their crops they needed. He called for stronger partnerships between farmers, millers and the government.

“We will use all our resources and dedicate all our energies towards the improvement of payments.”

He noted at the press conference that in some cases cheques from some rice millers were not honoured at the banks and out of desperation farmers were forced to pay a fee to get their cheques changed into cash.

“The situation is totally unacceptable and the RPA hopes that farmers will not be tortured this way again.”

Seeraj rejected the notion that purchase of paddy under extreme credit conditions was the way forward for the industry.

He said millers and exporters should work tirelessly to get pre-financing from their buyers and to have their working capital situations improved instead of depending on farmers.

“At the time of harvesting the farmers would have already invested money for six months.

The farmers need a ‘cash and delivery’ system for their produce. That is what we have to work to achieve, the supermarkets don’t sell rice on credit.”

He pointed out that the RPA was aware farmers were literally financing some mill’s operations by giving paddy under a credit arrangement.

On other matters, the RPA said it was concerned about weighing, grading and testing for moisture content of paddy and hoped to address this problem at a series of consultations.

Seeraj said the consultations would be done in collaboration with the Guyana Bureau of Standards and the Guyana Rice Development Board.

Two of the consultations were already held and a third would be held on September 20.