Will the farmers in Essequibo protest and burn now in protest against APNU ?

This is a very serious matter and APNU will have to deal with it.

Combine this with a lack of confidence in the business community and a slowdown of the Guyanese economy and we are headed into a recession.

TK spoke about a slowdown of the economy and negative growth for the next few years.

This is a major test for APNU. Let us see how it deals with this crisis.

The time is ripe for the PPP to enter parliament.

In care you ain't notice Bhai dis rice contract cancellation occurred under the PPP Government. We are only now learning of the PPP's failure.

Regardless if it did or not, I am saying that APNU has to deal with it. 

Guyana-Venezuela rice deal collapses

– thousands of farmers could be affected

By Gomatie Gangadin

Thousands of farmers are expected to be affected over the coming months as the Venezuelan Government has refused to renew the rice trade agreement with Guyana, leading to the virtual collapse of the entire deal which ends November this year.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan

The historic rice deal sealed by the previous People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela several years ago saw Guyana receiving oil in exchange for rice.

Speaking to Guyana Times on Wednesday, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said that during the PetroCaribe Ministerial Council Meeting which was held in Venezuela last week, the country indicated that it would not renew the agreement which comes to an end in November of this year. He noted that this was a result of the fact that Venezuela would be taking rice from Suriname and as such, did not require the large amount which was currently being sent from Guyana.

“They said that they had communicated that to the former Administration that they will not be renewing the contract and they still stand by that,” he said.

Jordan, however, said that the country has indicated that it may be interested in taking small amounts of rice from Guyana.

Questioned on the implications of this on the country, Jordan said that the Government was looking at alternative solutions which would include another deal with Venezuela.  This, which will be in the form of a joint venture, will see Guyana and any other interested country producing rice and Venezuela marketing the rice to countries such as Iran, which consume a large amount of the product.

Rice being exported to Venezuela

He noted that from there on, once the rice would have been sold, they would then sort out the payment terms to each contributing country. He cautioned, however, that discussion was still ongoing on the matter and to make a full pronouncement at this time would be premature.

The Finance Minister said it was on this note that Guyana has asked for the matter to be further discussed and for a high-level delegation to travel to the country. However, Jordan intimated that the way forward now was entirely dependent on the latest decree which has been issued by that country. He was, however, hopeful that the trade agreements between the two parties would continue.

“These were matters which were discussed last week, before the decree was issued, before everything else took place so we would have to see what takes place now. I would want to hope that whatever happens, it does not affect the trade agreements between the two countries,” the Finance Minister expressed.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon had told reporters last week that Guyana would have been looking for an extension of the deal even as the competing South American nations were eyeing the Venezuelan rice market, when the industry was not at its best with longstanding stakeholders. He had remained optimistic that owing to the length of time that the two countries have been engaged in this trade that Guyana would have had an advantage in maintaining its market share.

Long before the current crisis concerning the future of PetroCaribe, the political unrest and economic difficulties which had coincided with President Nicolás Maduro’s accession to office had raised questions about the future of the agreement.

Venezuela has been by far the major market for Guyana’s rice and paddy, accounting for around 60 per cent of total exports in 2010. In 2014, exports to Venezuela accounted for approximately 38 per cent of total exports though the overall tonnage exported (150,000 tonnes of rice and 50,000 tonnes of paddy) far exceeded the 2013 export levels.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon

In light of this development, the authorities here must now shift even further away from dependence on the Venezuelan market and begin to source additional rice markets since rice production this year is expected to soar even higher.

Last month, President David Granger had mandated Agriculture Minister Noel Holder and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, among others, to set about sourcing additional markets for the rice produced. It is still unclear whether any new markets have been sourced and if so, how much of Guyana’s production will be going to these new markets.

Guyana had been aiming to sell more than 200,000 tonnes of rice and paddy to Venezuela for this year; however, Minister Harmon said that the PetroCaribe Fund, set up to hold the proceeds from the oil-for-rice arrangement, was “still bare”, and debtors were demanding outstanding payments.

The Finance Minister disclosed that Government has released more than US$9 million of the total of US$15 million owed for the rice farmers to be paid. He noted that the remainder will be paid as soon as possible in the coming months.

Well,

APNU had all the answers for rice farmers during the election campaign. Let them deliver now.

This is a major crisis. 

"Last month, President David Granger had mandated Agriculture Minister Noel Holder and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, among others, to set about sourcing additional markets for the rice produced"

How come our Indo brothers Moses and Ramjattan are not involved in the rice market crisis ? They brought over the rice farmers to APNU.

APNU better thread carefully on this rice market crisis or it might bring the downfall of their government. Rice and Sugar are major race based politics in Guyana.

The PPP/C had a plan to construct rice based products, rice cereal, rice cake, and Rice Rum  everything to do with rice: even rice candies.

Who knows at least an industry like this will be able to take of some of the excess production.

PNC needs to obtain markets for current and future amounts of rice for exports.

HAHAHA  Actually, they had answers for Crime, Corruption and everything on the Planet.  However, their talks are VERY CHEAP.

You don't run an industry on the "who knows" concept.  Well, alyuh PNC can handle the shyte now.

Venezuela halts all rice, paddy shipments

…270 containers of rice stuck on wharf, over US$5M in limbo By Jarryl Bryan

Rice shipments bound for Venezuela

As the fallout from the collapse of the Guyana/Venezuela rice deal continues, Venezuela yesterday issued a directive for Guyana to cease all paddy and rice shipments to the neighbouring country with immediate effect. This comes four months before the PetroCaribe agreement was scheduled to come to an end. With some 270 containers of rice worth over US$5M left stranded on the wharves, and a further surplus crop expected to come by next month, this latest move by the oil producing giant, leaves Guyana with a more urgent need than ever to find an alternative market to Venezuela, which was responsible for 34 percent of rice exports under the PetroCaribe oil for rice deal. The cancellation is reported to have been first communicated to the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) by Venezuelan rice counterparts through a phone call. The news was subsequently conveyed to the Guyana Rice Millers Association in a meeting yesterday. Kaieteur News understands that while the directive goes into immediate effect, vessels already loaded and bound for Venezuela will be allowed to complete their shipment run. This will include the paddy vessel for this week, which is said to be currently on its way to the Spanish-speaking country and is slated to return to Guyana on July 18. According to a senior official of the GRDB, the decision will leave Guyana with no alternative but to hasten its search for other markets. He stated, however, that a legal challenge from the Guyana Government against the early termination of the agreement was still on the cards. Contacted yesterday, Minister of Agriculture Noel Holder confirmed that Venezuela pulling out of the agreement prematurely, sought the effect of embarrassing the Guyana Government and endangering the Guyana economy. According to Holder, this was something the Government had not expected, but would nevertheless have to adjust to and find markets for the unshipped rice. On what course the Government would take, Holder described the early termination of the contract as an international incident, whereby one country had broken its commitment to another. According to the Minister, seeking legal redress was definitely an option. Prominent miller and former Chief Executive Officer of Alesie Group, Dr. Turhane Doerga, described the development as devastating, since some 270 containers, filled with rice and originally bound for Venezuela, were still sitting on the wharf. Before the paddy vessel left, it had been expected that on its return the containers would have been loaded and shipped. At US$780 per tonne, this represents over US$5M in rice. According to Doerga, this was rice that millers had not been paid for as yet. Kaieteur News understands that the rice had already been packaged and fumigated. Contacted yesterday, Co-Chairman of the Rice Action Committee, Jinnah Rahman made it clear that with some 120,000 people, including farmers and their families, dependant on the rice industry, Guyana could ill afford the present conflict and the concurrent fall out it has resulted in, whereby the shipments have been canceled. He also said that this has come at a time when the country was trying to get out the backlog of approximately 100,000 tonnes of paddy and rice still in the system. He also stated that should alternate markets not be found by the next crop (late August-early September) the industry would be left with a major crisis on its hands. Reminded of the Panama market, which Guyana commenced shipments to earlier in the year; Rahman said that Guyana has only received payments for one of four shipments. According to him, the new Panama Government has not indicated any intentions on clearing payments to Guyana, as the rice deal was derived from the previous Panamian administration, which is under fire over corruption allegations. Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, had said earlier in the week that while visiting Venezuela, he was told in no uncertain terms that the South American neighbour would no longer be interested in renewing the oil for rice barter under the PetroCaribe deal which was originally slated to come to an end on November 16, next. He said that Guyana was told to find new markets for its rice. Venezuela’s decision regarding the rice deal comes at a time when it is claiming sovereignty over Guyana’s waters since the significant oil find by American oil giant, Exxon Mobil just 100 miles off of the Stabroek Block. The issue is one which has seen the Government displaying complete resistance to Venezuela’s declaration and even its rhetoric over the past few weeks. Jordan had said last Wednesday that Venezuela claimed it had hinted to the past administration as well as to top officials in the Guyana Rice Development Board that Guyana needs to start looking at other markets. Based on records over the past two to three years, Jordan had said that it would show that Venezuela was scaling back on the volume of rice it was taking from Guyana. It has been reported that the oil-rich country has even entered into new rice deals with rice-producing giants like Uruguay. That South American country has agreed to provide Venezuela with 120,000 tonnes of rice by the end of this year. This deal was struck so that Uruguay can clear its US$400M debt it accumulated from taking Venezuela’s oil at concessionary prices. According to El Pais, a leading newspaper in Colombia, this is the first time that the Government of Uruguay has participated in a rice export agreement which will be officially signed on July 17. Economic time bomb It was only on June 14; last, that Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas, predicted that like the ailing sugar industry, the booming rice industry could be sitting on another economic time bomb. He had said that certain factors affecting the rice sector leave it poised for a dispiriting future. Dr. Thomas said, “The ticking time bomb that rice is perched” on is due to three factors. He listed these to be explosive growth of output, increasing difficulty in finding lucrative markets and the level of unit production costs. The economist noted that rice output has grown explosively in the 2010s; rising by more than 100,000 tonnes annually since 2012. He said that much of this expansion has been fuelled by Government support to both supply (production) and demand (finding lucrative markets). He had said, “As is common knowledge, the Venezuelan market is at great risk generating a potential demand/supply market imbalance. This imbalance risks a collapse of rice and paddy prices later this year, thereby impairing livelihoods, in contrast to what prevailed in the first half of the 2010s.” The economist had opined that should Guyana fail to deal with the aforementioned factors with great haste, then the sustainability of the rice industry could prove to give the new government, a similar kind of hell it is facing in trying to nurse the ailing sugar industry back to good health.

it is not the whole industry that in deep shyte.  It is their marketing system which the PNC can't seem to implement.  Commerce and trade are a foreign language  to bunch of criminals who only wants to party all the time.

Fact:

1.  Venezuela since 2010 told Guyana the rice deal will be renewed year by year;

2.  After Exxon came to Guyana - Venezeula said, it is either rice or exxon, you choose - Guyana under the PPP chose Exxon.

So why is the Granger / Nagamootoo Government being blamed again for the situation in which Guyana found itself?