The New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) yesterday signed a $66.28M contract for the procurement of cold storage facilities for farmers.

The contract was signed at the Ministry of Agriculture’s boardroom and was witnessed by Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud and Venezuela’s ambassador to Guyana, Dario Morandy. The procurement is part of a project entitled “Improving the Cold Chain for Non-Traditional Agricultural Produce”, which is financed through a programme of support by the Venezuelan Government to the tune of US$859,600.

The four refrigerated trucks and five refrigerated containers are being supplied by National Hardware. GMC Head, Nizam Hassan explained that the trucks will be used to go into the farms where the produce will be picked up and taken to the pack house. Initially farmers supplying exporters will be targeted.

If the produce is not going to be exported immediately, these will be stored in the containers. A fee will be charged but Persaud said that this will be heavily subsidized.

The Ministry says that last year, 2,031 tonnes of fresh produce was prepared for export at the Parika and Sophia packaging facilities.

Other activities of the project include the purchase of field crates for use by farmers to minimize post harvest losses from the field to the pack house; the construction of a produce collection area for farmers produce; and the building of a fresh produce pack-house at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri which will be used by producers to prepare produce for export.