Producing little is bad, but producing a lot is also bad for the rice sector, since it affects the sector and can cause significant losses to producers.
According to experts and producers consulted, there is a latent concern about what they call an “overproduction” or “oversupply of inventory”, which indicates that it could cause a lack of interest in the industry that would affect those who are dedicated to producing this cereal.
Consulted by Listín Diario, the president of the National Federation of Rice Producers (Fenarroz), Marcelo Reyes, and the expert rice producer, Luis Yangüela, agreed to point out the concern about the difficulties that this may represent and what this implies for the profitability of the commercialization of this agricultural item.
“The national rice sector is going through a special situation due to an overstock in the rice factories, this is causing a lack of interest in the industry that directly affects the low profitability of the producer,” Reyes said.
For Yangüela, the greatest difficulty of the production sector is the lack of planning that the agricultural cabinet reveals. He explains that since the end of 2020, an import shortage has been brought into the country above the DR-Cafta quota. This added to the record production of last year and the slowdown in rice consumption, in his opinion, causes an oversupply of inventory.
He points out that it was mandatory to sit down with all the actors in the rice sector to plan this year’s planting, which he says “was not done” causing these inventories to not allow the paddy rice that is being prepared to be received with the speed that is required. harvesting and worse yet, the one that is missing from the second stage that ends in December and that without the aforementioned planning, the rice will continue to enter without stopping at the same rate as it was sown.
The expert rice producer states that this year the cost of production did not affect the harvest due to the subsidies that the Government gave to fertilizers and to producers with RD$100 for 120 kilos of paddy rice in the first stage of planting.
about the industry
In the case of the industry, Yangüela maintains that the situation is more difficult, since it is between the producer and the consumer, and whose costs have increased in proportion to inflation, however, it is forced to buy rice from the producer. at the minimum prices established by the National Rice Commission (CONA) and has the pressure not to raise the consumer.
It maintains that the pledge program allows the stored rice to access loans from the national bank and the Government, through the Pledge Execution Unit (UEPI), pays the interest on these loans, the fiscal warehouse and the insurance, which is of great relief to producers.
However, Yangüela refers that as the excess inventory had to be pledged and this was not planned in the UEPI budget either, it maintains a three-month delay in the payment to the industry, which he said further complicates the situation.
“If a real planning for the coming harvest is not assumed and the sowing dates are really established, how many sowings are going to be done in the year and sowing continues without control, there will come a time when the inventories ( …) are going to directly affect the entire rice production and marketing chain,” Yangüela concludes.
Fenarroz asks to maintain incentive
Reyes was in favor of the Government maintaining the subsidy of RD$100 per fanega and said that they have been waiting for this incentive. “The amount of 100 pesos for the second stage must be maintained for producers, as well as the resources allocated to the Pledge program (they must not be lacking) so that balance and stability are maintained in the fields that are dedicated to rice cultivation. Reyes said.
In the Lower Yuna
Another situation that affects the rice growers is that experienced by the producers of Bajo Yuna with the millers in the factories, since the variety of rice planted yields less than expected, which creates a problem when it comes to marketing it.
Rice producer César Espaillat, former president of Fenarroz, suggests that the Government promote the construction or rebuilding of factories, of those contemplated in the Agrarian Reform, to help producers so that they themselves process their rice and market it.
“Many millers do not like the rice that has been sown, because its husk is a little thicker and it yields less in the mill,” Espaillat pointed out.