The Guyana Marketing Cor-poration (GMC) is renewing its call for farmers of non-traditional crops to establish associations in order to strengthen their negotiating power with exporters.
GMC General Manager Nizam Hassan said the farmers need to create a mechanism that will enhance their efficiency and ability to meet the requirements of exporters and agro-processors. Accord-ing to a press release, Hassan, in a recent interview said current trends show exports in this sector will continue to increase this year since there is greater demand both regionally and extra-regionally for non-traditional agro-produce. “Agricultural cooperatives or associations play an important role in marketing agricultural crops,” he said, adding that a cooperative structure will assist farmers in the processing of their produce.
In this regard the GMC’s marketing officers have been visiting farming communities countrywide to facilitate the establishment of farmers’ associations. Forming such entities will allow uniform preparation of a commodity for a buyer as well as make transactions easier between the buyer and a large number of farmers. “This has its obvious advantages since no buyer would prefer doing business with twenty farmers separately, in comparison to one organised entity,” Hassan said.
Meanwhile, the GMC said that pack houses at Parika, Charity and Number 43 Village, Corentyne are expected to be operational this year.
