Georgetown: Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy noted that the shipping arrangements for the 5000 tons of fertilizer are yet to be finalized. He explained that the ships with which arrangements were made have now informed the Ministry that they would not be available for the set dates. These would have seen one shipment arriving between the 23rd -24th of September while another would do so, in the following week.
The Minister posited that it would have been good if when the ships with rice which sailed to Venezuela, would come back with the fertilizer, “but such cannot be done because of the regulations which stipulate that only a special of ship can be used. This is in accordance with the Petro Caribe agreement”.
“The fertilizer is available at still a very good price that will allow us to make it available to the farmers at a cost that is under $5000 per bag, which means farmers will save between $3000- $5000 per bag and that’s a major saving for farmers who presently pay between $8000-$10,000 per bag,” Minister Ramsammy said. Rice farmers, depending on where they are located, currently pay between $7,000 and $10,000 for a 48 kilogram bag of urea.
The Minister explained that the Ministry is developing a model for the distribution of the fertilizer which will benefit every farmer, whether small or large. However, how much they get will be dependent on the equation being developed.
“The small farmer will benefit the most because they will meet close to 100 percent of their need, whereas as you get to the bigger farmers, the allotted percentage will become less. So at this point the large farmers will not meet all of their needs through the provision of this, so they will have to buy some fertilizer on the present market that exists and it is possible that some of the large farmers will meet all their needs,” Minister Ramsammy indicated.
With regards to the payment arrangements, the present shipment of fertilizer was paid for by the Government. “The price of fertilizer is a controlled price that is determined on a daily/weekly basis by the global authorities so the prices are set… I could tell you that those who are marketing fertilizers today can be wealthy. The price being charged to the farmer makes a good profit. We are not going to be making a profit. We are going to have a small mark-up for handling charges to cover shipping, etc…,” the Minister pointed out.
However, the final cost will be determined when the shipment arrives, and the date of shipping will also determine the price because it is worked out on that exchange. At the moment, Guyana’s rice farmers require about 20,000 tonnes of fertilizer.
During a recent visit to the Spanish-speaking State of Venezuela the Minister succeeded in getting manufacturers to agree to supply Guyana with 5,000 tonnes of fertilizer. During the recent visit of President Nicolas Maduro to Guyana, a decision was made to extend that previous agreement to two shipments.
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