The rice sector is on tenterhooks: no agreement was reached and the mobilization for storage incentive and floor prices is maintained

The rice sector remains on tenterhooks. Óscar Gutiérrez, executive president of Dignidad Agropecuaria Colombiana, one of the unions present at the table set up by the National Government to reach an agreement with the industry and rice producers regarding the storage incentive and the establishment of a floor price, announced that this was not possible.

Gutierrez ratified the realization of a mobilization tomorrow, June 27, at 9:00 a.m., in front of the facilities of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the city of Bogota, to demand an agreement that allows rice producers to face the increases that have occurred in inputs, fertilizers, labor, land leasing, and cultivation work.

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The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced the activation of the technical round table for setting the storage incentive and floor prices for the purchase of the rice harvest, an issue that will determine the producer’s income and will affect rice prices in Colombia.

The sector has been under discussion for two weeks now between the national government and the rice producers’ unions, following the government’s proposal to replace the rice storage incentive with structural solutions and the response of the unions, which pointed out that these solutions do not happen overnight, so the storage incentive and the floor prices are still vital for the producers.

Technical round table to seek agreements on the storage incentive and floor prices

According to Fedearroz, the national government and rice farmers should establish a conversation with a view to finding “agreements that guarantee favorable marketing conditions for the rice harvest, on which the supply of rice for the country depends both in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024”.

The union also stressed that it is necessary to carry out an “integral analysis that includes the various factors that have affected the producing sector and that inexorably lead it to rely on government support to store temporary rice surpluses”.

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The rice storage incentive compromises the labor stability of 216 municipalities in Colombia, the income of 500,000 families, and ultimately the future stability of the rice sector, said Fedearroz.

In view of the situation, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jhenifer Mojica Flórez, said this afternoon, June 26, that “the Ministry of Agriculture has already made available about 20 billion pesos to help leverage this harvest and this surplus that is noticed, especially in the region of the Llanos Orientales”.

Atención 🔴#MinAgricultura anuncia instalación de la mesa con sector arrocero para revisar el precio base y el almacenamiento del excedente de la cosecha de este segundo semestre. pic.twitter.com/V7SYPJ3fIu

— Min. de Agricultura (@MinAgricultura) June 26, 2023

In order to reach agreements on the storage incentive and floor prices, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development set up a technical round table with the participation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, and three rice sector unions: Fedearroz, Induarroz, and Dignidad Agropecuaria Colombiana with its subsidiary, Dignidad Arrocera.

As we were able to learn from one of the attendees at the technical table, the general manager, Rafael Hernández, and two officers of the guild were present on behalf of Fedearroz. Roberto Botero attended on behalf of Dignidad Arrocera, a subsidiary of Dignidad Agropecuaria Colombiana. Finally, Induarroz was represented by the executive director, Sandra Avellaneda, and the president of the Board of Directors, Ricardo Lozano.

With this technical table, the portfolio expected “to have good news in the coming hours in favor of all Colombian farmers and also of all consumers”, as the head of the portfolio said in the afternoon. Everything indicates that, at least for now, that has not been achieved.

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