We Got Rice

I had a whole other blog post planned for this weekend. But the events of the last 36 hours made me change my writing.

It’s been months since our warehouses held more than a few bags of rice for more than two or three days. As soon as we got rice, we’d mill it and ship it. Because we have supply contracts to fulfill, we need our supplies to be able to meet our obligations. Farmers sell us rice; we process and sell to clients. Since June, farmers had no rice to sell because it wasn’t harvest time. We’ve bought up all the stocks from other processors, and from the rare breed of lowland rice farmers like Cyril A, who harvest at regular intervals throughout the year. Things got so bad, we had to re-negotiate our supply contract for school feeding...we had no rice to supply.

Part of the problem we can attribute to climate change. Or something. This year, planting was delayed because the rainy season delayed. Most of our farmers planted their rice in June, rather the traditional April or May. Instead of harvesting in August and September, most of our farmers have just harvested their rice in November; and are drying it in the sun before selling. For that matter, we just finished harvesting our own farm on Wednesday this week. Everything is delayed.

But Christmas is coming and people’s options for income are really diminished this year.

So last week, when in the space of 48 hours we got five truck loads of rice, we were initially ecstatic. Our mills worked 18 hours a day, Monday through Saturday; on Sunday after Church, our team was there working. Milling all that rice to be able to ship. We have enough rice to export several containers, plus satisfy our school feeding and other institutional clients. We’ve got enough rice to last us well into 2020.

That should be a good thing, right?

Thursday evening around 8:30, I got a call from Mamie J. from Lofa. She’s a leader of a very prolific farming community and she’d promised me up to 5,000 bags of paddy rice starting in November. Her group have harvested and have the rice available...but first they had to wait for the Lofa road to “open”...and then they had to find a truck to haul the rice. Eventually, last week, they’d brought the first 150 bags, and a few days later, the second batch. Every step of the way she was calling me to let me know their progress. They had delivered the rice. So I was surprised when she called on Thursday...it was to request that we pay for the rice before Christmas. Well, that’s normal, I thought. After all, our usual turnaround is 10-14 days so we should be able to get her money. I reassured her: “Of course, you’ll get paid before Christmas.”

She was pleased with that but her real reason for calling was not that. It was to try to secure the sale of her whole harvest...she has 200 bags on the way now and every few days, she wants to send 200 bags, until that 5,000 bags has been sold.

Yikes! Well, on further thought...this is a good thing. I’d have pretty secure supplies for first quarter 2020. We ended the call cordially and I went to sleep.

By ten yesterday morning, I saw two men trudging up the hill to our house/office. From Lofa. They came to tell us they were bringing rice and wanted to finalize the payment terms.

Ah-ah!! More rice!

“How much rice y’all bringing?”

“We geh more than 3,000 bags, but we want be your supplier...we can get more. And nobody buying rice this year. Only y’all.”

Chay! Mamie’s 5,000 plus these people’s 3,000 plus what I have on hand, plus our partner farms haven’t even supplied us yet. But we’re getting rice and that’s a good thing. Right?

We agreed some terms and off they went. I’m already thinking let me go start finding new outlets to sell rice. Because all these people bringing their rice to our warehouses, in one or two weeks, they will be looking for payment. And we are not in any position to pre-finance or to stockpile rice.

By 2:30 pm, I saw another group coming up the hill. Three men this time. They had brought us the surprise load of 500 bags last week. They came to verify the status of their payment before Christmas. Yes, of course, I reassured them. Y’all will certainly get paid before Christmas.

By this time my stomach is starting to hurt. All these people I’m promising to pay before Christmas...I know that when we get paid, it is by bank transfer. I know that we’ll get paid long before Christmas. What I don’t know is if we will be able to get the cash out to pay these people before Christmas. Because last week, we had to go from branch to branch over two days just to be able to cash a $1,000 cheque. And here we are talking $8-10,000 just for farmers...then salaries; and fuel, and other payables. We’re gonna need close to $50,000 in cash.

“Yeah Ol Ma. We came because we get another thousand bags waiting to come soon you pay us for this first one.”

Say what now?

“Ol ma, you de only one buying right nah!”

We concluded the conversation, and I looked over at Francis, my right hand and CEO.

“Suppose the bank can’t give us cash next week?” I put our mutual fear into words. “How will we manage? These people can’t take cheques!”

While digesting the acute problem of cashless banks, and surplus supplies, the phone rang. Someone I know from Gbarnga calling on behalf of farming groups there.

“We get rice!” He tells me with no small bit of pride. “The women groups say they can supply you with up to 5,000 bags of rice! Ol ma we been all ‘round. Y’all de only ones buying.”

This isn’t fun anymore.

For FABRAR, we can turn the farmers away, and only take what we can absorb for the sales channels we have developed. We can manage, even in our cash-strapped state.

But these farmers, these communities, these women...who will buy their rice if we don’t?

And if we do buy their rice, who will we sell it to?