– Minister Persaud
EMBATTLED Mahaicony Rice Limited (MRL) will not have its licence renewed come 2011, Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, announced at his end of year media briefing yesterday. He said the company, which has defaulted on its debts to rice farmers, will be held accountable for that indebtedness.
MRL has its main operations at Mahaicony and Blairmont, in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice) with others across the country that are buying centres at different locations.
The company’s debt to local farmers is estimated at some $200M but the actual amount is yet to be verified, as MRL has not made its accounting records available to Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) for an audit.
A team went to MRL for that purpose but was denied access to the accounts and the  matter is now with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“We expect the Police to do their job,” Persaud said, noting that GRDB’s request for information to conduct the audit is a lawful one and in accordance with Section 10 (1) of the Rice Factories Act.
MRL is one of the largest local rice millers, doing business in Guyana since 1991 and, reportedly, controls a significant percentage of  paddy purchases.
However, Persaud said that, without MRL, the sector has enough capacity to take off the paddy produced.
He said facilities in Regions Five, Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) are expanding.
Persaud said, while the sector can do better with more milling capacity, there cannot be a compromise when it comes to farmers’ payments, which are, now, more than nine months overdue.
MRL had signed agreements with rice farmers to make half the payments after the first 14 days and the rest after 41 days, delays attracting two per cent plus the current lending rate at banks as interest.
But the company has not honoured the agreements and, in an attempt to ensure that such problems are reduced, steps are being taken to amend the Rice Factories Act, so that farmers secure added protection.
The amendment is expected to ensure that millers pay every farmer 95 per cent before the mill receives a licence. This must be completed within 42 days of supply and the Rice Factories (Amendment) Bill 2010 was read for the first time in the National Assembly last July and is expected to be addressed sometime Persaud said the delay in having the legislation debated is so that stakeholders have adequate opportunity to review it.