A lo­cal rice im­porter is urg­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to stop pan­ic buy­ing.

Li­aquat Ali, the CEO of Trinidad Par­boil/Old Mac Agro, said de­spite a short­age of for­eign ex­change there is enough rice in T&T and sup­plies would be com­ing in.

He spoke with Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day at the op­er­a­tion’s Mc Bean Cou­va ware­house and dis­tri­b­u­tion cen­tre.

Ali said, “There is no short­age of rice, be­cause of pan­ic buy­ing it is cre­at­ing a short­age of rice. The prob­lem is ac­cess­ing the for­eign ex­change for the prod­uct. Right now I have bills to pay that were re­ceived in De­cem­ber. We are get­ting goods avail­able; we need for­eign ex­change to pay for the rice.”

Ali said he got a call from Re­pub­lic Bank and in­formed them of his for­eign ex­change needs. Ali said cit­i­zens in this coun­try con­sume be­tween 36,000 to 40,000 tonnes of rice an­nu­al­ly. He said T&T im­ports 99.9 per cent of all its rice with 90 per cent com­ing from Guyana and the rest from Brazil and Asia.

Ali said rice can last a year in the pack­age.

He said de­spite the chal­lenges in Guyana, sup­plies have been com­ing from that coun­try.

Ali said, “I am ap­peal­ing to the con­sumer to buy with­in rea­son.”