Rice prices are expected to strengthen in the coming weeks

The costly but necessary initiatives currently being undertaken by our government to irrigate rice fields within the drought-stricken rice belt may soon pay dividend as global rice prices continue to strengthen and climb and local farmers are in line to receive far better prices for their paddy than they did in 2009.
Though world rice prices are not yet expected to return to the record levels of 2008 when our farmers received as much as $5,000 per bag of paddy, international rice production and consumption forecasts are pointing in the direction of imminent significant price gains for rice exporting countries.

However, in Guyana’s case, we have to guard against foreign-owned companies which operate here and are known to consistently exploit farmers and millers.
These buyers are in the habit of luring many cash-strapped millers with small advances made against signed low-price sales contracts which translate into low paddy prices to farmers. Some of these buyers have also been using farmers’ paddy to generate cash flow and very often paddy supplied in one crop is paid for in the other crop or, in some instances, as much as one year after purchase. This recurring situation has since forced the government to amend the Rice Factories Act to deal with delinquent millers and buyers… more

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