Dear Editor,
Permit us to respond on behalf of Mr Robert Persaud, Minister of Agriculture, on the letter captioned ‘Wauna farmers cannot sell their peanuts’ published in the March 4, 2009 Stabroek News.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Agriculture was not involved in the conceptualisation of this project and, since it became aware that the project required its assistance, the Minister of Agriculture and other technical staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) met with farmers to adjust the situation.
GMC, as you would know, is not involved in the purchase and resale of farmers’ produce; rather GMC facilitates the marketing process through marketing services which includes match making (linking buyer and seller).
We have since collected a sample of the peanuts and have been in discussion with agro-processors in Georgetown with respect to purchasing the peanuts.
The price of farmers’ produce in our market today is determined by market forces (demand, supply, quality, delivery, packaging, terms of payment, etc). There is no price control or price fixing that is done by the Ministry of Agriculture or GMC.
Finally, Editor, we wish to reinforce our advice to all producers in Guyana that their production should be ‘market-led,’ a major pillar of the Grow More Food campaign.
Yours faithfully,
Nizam Hassan
General Manager
Guyana Marketing Corporation
