Rice farmers in the Black Bush Polder (BBP) on Tuesday blocked sections of the main access road at Lesbeholden, cutting off vehicular traffic, in protest over the price being offered by millers for paddy.
Millers have indicated that they would be offering $5000 per ton of rice paddy when harvesting commences.
However, the farmers are demanding a higher price. On Tuesday morning, they began their protest action outside of a mill at Lesbeholden and called on the intervention of the government.
The protest escalated and tractors wheels, carts and other large items were placed across the road as the farmers demanded that the millers come with a better offer.
Rice prices have been falling on the world market and is predicted to fall even lower.
President of the Rice Producers Association (RPA) Leaka Rambrich explained that the price is set by millers and not government.
“The rice price is fixed by millers based on the world market. Currently, the graph is showing a downward trend,” the RPA head explained.
In 2023, millers in the Black Bush Polder and on the Corentyne in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) were offering $4500 per bag of paddy.
They made the same offer in 2024, even though rice prices on the world market were dropping.
This was possible because the government removed the sales commission paid by millers.
For the first crop in 2025, over 72,000 acres are under rice cultivation in the region.
This, according to Rambrich, will produce in excess of three million bags of paddy.
Guyana currently exports in excess of 65 percent of the rice produced locally to Europe. But exporters are finding it more difficult to penetrate that market because of a certain chemical used by some local farmers.
Although the chemical is banned locally, some farmers still acquire it illegally.
However, such rice is rejected by the European market.
Rambrich believes that there are not enough mills in the region to take off all of the rice that will be produced this crop.
He says that countrywide, Guyana is expected to produce in excess of eight million bags of paddy this crop.
“There is no way that the mills in the country will be able to handle all of that; they do not have the capacity to take off all that paddy,” Rambrich said.
Moreover, Rambrich said there is still 90,000 tonnes of rice in the system from the last crop and markets have not been secured for them.
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