Rice growers in Colombia have worked at a loss for two years, and 60 to 70 percent have lost money, while Agriculture Minister Indalecio Dangond told farmers on the Caribbean coast not to plant rice and urged them to grow cashew instead. The ministry hasn’t published a plan to put that advice into policy, and growers’ requests for debt relief and talks remain unresolved.
Who Pays for the Price Slump
“We have been working at a loss for two years,” Alci Cortés of the growers’ movement Dignidad Arrocera told Diario del Huila. He estimated that 60 to 70 percent of growers had lost money.
In Huila, paddy rice fetched about 230,000 pesos, or about US$69, per carga in November 2022. A carga is 125 kilograms of unmilled rice. The price later fell to 169,500 pesos, or about US$51, and stood near 193,200 pesos, or about US$58, in late September. Cortés put the break-even price at 208,000 to 209,000 pesos, or about US$63.
Higher fertilizer prices added about 1.2 million pesos, or about US$360, to the cost of a hectare in 2026, Cortés said. He linked a partial price recovery to lower supply after weather cut output in some areas.
Fedearroz, the national growers’ federation, said on 29 September that irrigated sowing had fallen about 30 percent as rivers ran low. The ministry hasn’t publicly answered its request to help refinance growers’ debts after low prices in the 2025 and 2026 harvests.
A Crop Shift Without a Published Plan
Dangond made his remarks in Urumita to farmers from La Guajira and Cesar, where growers face the price slump and a dispute with his ministry. “Rice is no longer a business. Don’t plant rice, rice is not a business. It is very risky, it needs a lot of water,” he said, according to El Colombiano. Infobae quoted him saying rice prices “are very volatile,” and that farmers can sow on good hopes and harvest into lower prices.
He listed cashew, coconut, oil palm, pomegranate and plantain as options for La Guajira. “Plant once and think in 25 years,” he said, contrasting permanent crops with rice, which requires fresh investment every six months. Senate vice-president Alejandro Ocampo noted that cashew can take five to seven years to mature.
Huila grower Martín Vargas told Caracol Radio that the region has suitable land and mills built for rice. About 2,500 producers there sow some 47,000 hectares each semester, he said. Julio Roberto Salazar, a Conservative who chairs the lower house farm committee, said producers shouldn’t be told to abandon a strategic crop.
Petro, who left office in August 2026, called Dangond’s advice “miserable towards the people of Colombia” in a post on X. He argued that cutting cereal output would increase the risk of hunger if devaluation and drought occurred together.
Millers, Imports and State Oversight
Fedearroz said millers in Casanare raised paddy prices only after about 80 percent of the crop had been sold. The federation also asked the ministry to help refinance growers’ debts. No direct Fedearroz reply to Dangond’s remarks had been reported by Sunday evening.
The ministry ordered a forensic-style review of funds managed by the federation, El Colombiano reported. Those funds included about 552 billion pesos, or about US$167 million, from import auctions and a farm levy over 15 years. Board chair César Augusto Saavedra said the federation was open to any review and noted that the Comptroller General’s office, the state audit body, already checks the funds yearly.
In Tolima, grower Juan Pablo Rodríguez told Caracol Radio that farmers must rethink crops before rice imports become duty-free in 2030. Departmental figures Caracol Radio cited on 4 October 2026 put Tolima’s rice growers at about 4,870 across 11 municipalities. The account warned that fewer plantings, combined with El Niño, could tighten domestic rice supply in coming harvests.
Growers in Huila and Tolima sought a round table with the ministry, millers and Fedearroz. No meeting date had been announced, and the ministry still hadn’t published a plan for Dangond’s advice. Rice growers’ refinancing request still had no public answer.