The pressure is mounting on Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager, Nizam Hassan.
CEO of Guyana Stockfeeds and Pegasus owner, Robert Badal
Robert Badal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Guyana Stockfeeds Inc (GSI), is calling for his resignation or removal.
According to Badal, Hassan’s actions are frustrating rice exports and the implementation of reforms which are necessary for the industry. He has called for Hassan to be replaced by someone more capable.
Badal, also the owner of Pegasus Hotel, was referring to Hassan’s refusal to release GSI’s customs shipping bill in order for it to ship two containers of parboiled rice to two Jamaican customers. The delay in such shipments, it was noted, would mean the loss of the Company’s market in Jamaica.
GSI has been shipping rice to its customers at US$595 per tonne since last October. According to Badal, the GRDB has settled with Jamaica on a price of $650 per tonne but has not shipped a grain of parboiled rice at that price since the agreement.
Badal was adamant that the GRDB is not a rice miller, nor should it make agreements on behalf of millers and direct millers’ prices which are entirely market based.
He is calling on Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, to implement reforms in the workings of the GRDB, including the removal of Hassan and the hiring of someone who could implement reforms in the interest of the rice industry.
There has been heavy criticism from other quarters against Hassan’s management of the GRDB, including from the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA) and the RPA- Action Committee (RPA-AC).
Two agreements were previously signed between the GRDB and two Jamaican companies; the Jamaica Rice Milling Company Limited and Musson (Jamaica) Limited. Both companies had agreed to import a total of
GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan
80,000 tonnes of rice from Guyana this year.
In defence of the agreement, GRDB had said, “The agreements seek to organize the supply of rice to the Jamaican market and prevent under-pricing and under invoicing by suppliers. The agreement allows the Jamaican companies to buy rice from licensed rice millers/exporters from Guyana. Minimum orders of 1,500 tonnes will be given to mills for export.”
This defence has not gone down well with some involved in the rice industry, with RPA-AC co- Chair Dr. Turhane Doerga describing the deal as detrimental to Guyana.
In addition, a crescendo of criticisms came the GRDB’s way when it organized a deal for the supply of urea fertilizer. In response to the criticism, the GRDB had stated that discussions were started with suppliers overseas and a contract was entered into with HDM labs, because of the “perceived urgency” in the industry caused by the loss of the Venezuelan rice market last year.
However, the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) had accused the entity of making the deal under the table. PPP Member of Parliament and General Secretary of GRDB, Dharamkumar Seeraj, had also described the deal as a direct contravention of the laws, norm and conventions.
The issue has generated much controversy, with HDM labs even threatening local newspaper Guyana Times with a $200M lawsuit after it carried an article deemed as defamatory.
Reports have since emerged that the deal, worth over $400M, has collapsed.