By Miranda La Rose
Government is currently re-suscitating port-of-entry operations at the Morawhanna Fish Port Complex in Region One (Barima/Waini) in order to facilitate travel and trade with some Caricom countries and further afield.
Provisions are currently in place to facilitate sporadic requests for processing exports from the region to neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). In a telephone interview, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told Stabroek News that 70 to 100 tonnes ocean-going vessels ply the route from T&T to Charity on the Pomeroon River which is used as a port-of-entry to trade in agricultural produce such as eddoes, ginger, coconut water and copra. He said too in recent years, there have been a number of requests to reactivate Morawhanna because of the growing need to find markets for agricultural, forestry and quarrying products from the region to T&T and other Caricom countries.
Hinds said agricultural products could be shipped to T&T within 20 to 24 hours in small, ocean-going vessels. This is about the same time it takes to reach Georgetown before it is again shipped to other destinations. Operating the port at Morawhanna is less time consuming and more profitable for farmers and producers. Hinds said AMCAR (Amazon Caribbean) company which exports the heart-of-palm to North American and European markets, expressed an interest in shipping its products from Morawhanna instead of shipping to Georgetown then to other markets.
Quarrying companies operating in the area are also interested in shipping stone to T&T and other Caricom countries while logging companies would prefer to ship lumber from Morawhanna to T&T for transfer to their Asian markets. Hinds said furniture and craft production are also done in the region, for which there is a Caricom market. He said too persons can travel to T&T by boat once the port-of-entry was fully reactivated.
The prime minister said that during the mid-1950s Morawhanna had been declared a port-of-entry and it facilitated the export of manganese concentrate from Matthew’s Ridge and Port Kaituma to T&T. This was done until the early 1970s when the manganese company closed its operations. However, with new opportunities opening for trade with T&T and other Caricom countries government is exploring resuscitating operations at the Complex with a full complement of staff to deal with customs and immigration, quarantine and storage facilities. He said too there were time, cost and security considerations.
Meanwhile, Region One Chairman Fermin Singh said that a full-time port-of-entry would encourage farmers who had scaled down their operations and those who had abandoned the land to return to farming. He said it would encourage trade which would ultimately improve livelihoods. Singh said Morawhanna had been upgraded to meet the needs of fishermen in the late 1980s but further upgrades would greatly assist farmers particularly in the Mabaruma sub-region, at Port Kaituma, Matthew’s Ridge and Waini. He said currently hucksters who ply the ferry from Georgetown to Mabaruma pay little or next to nothing for farm produce from the region.
Singh believes that a market in T&T or in other islands would encourage farmers and others to invest in the land. He recalled the “North West being referred to as the breadbasket of Guyana” in the 1960s but this title disappeared due to a lack of transportation to carry the produce to the city; and the consumption needs were subsequently met by Parika and other farmers on the Coast. Given the current food shortage in some areas and high prices for food, a Caribbean market is a great opportunity for the “North West re-establishing itself, this time as the breadbasket of the Caribbean,” he said. This would allow farmers and their employees to make a handsome profit.
Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud told this newspaper earlier this week that the government’s agricultural plans include making Region One the ‘Organic Capital’ of Guyana and the Caribbean. Region One is known for producing a number of organically grown crops including cocoa, root crops such as cassava, yams, eddoes, dasheen, plantains, ginger and the heart-of-palm. Citrus also thrives in the area.
Persaud said that immediately farmers from Region One could export a number of crops and produce which have been approved by the T&T government. This includes boulanger, bora, cabbage, dry coconut, eddoe, ginger, green plantain, hot pepper, lime, mango, peeled coconut (green), pineapple, pumpkin, rice, rice bran, sweet pepper, tomato, sweet potato and wiri wiri pepper. Other products approved are wooden furniture, logs and sawn lumber. Thirty-three other agricultural products are to undergo pest risk analyses before approval would be granted.
The minister said he would soon travel to T&T to meet with the private sector about issues including the possibilities of crops and other produce being exported from Guyana and Region One in particular, to T&T and other Caricom countries.
