Guyana has had a “devil’s job” in accessing Caribbean Community (CARICOM) markets for its agricultural produce, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud has said.
Responding to a comment by Ivor De Freitas at the Siriki School, Pomeroon River during a meeting to announce the opening of new lands for agriculture Wednesday, Persaud highlighted this fact.
De Freitas, who said he lives in St. Lucia but has a home in the Pomeroon and has been visiting for the past 50 years, observed that over this period he has witnessed the “depletion” of Pomeroon farmers in large part, due to the lack of markets. He questioned how farmers can be asked to grow more when markets are lacking. “Production is no good if there are no markets” he said. “There are no markets right now so why produce more food.”
He highlighted that Pomeroon has great potential for farming but said that today, the farmer has no guaranteed markets while in St. Lucia, there is a need for produce. He said that it is important that the Ministry start thinking about setting up a marketing board to buy produce at a guaranteed sum. He also made the point that in other countries, farmers are subsidized to encourage them to remain. He mentioned too that a friend of his had attempted to get some produce to Barbados but the ship took three days to leave port because of red tape and the produce spoiled.
In response, Persaud said that De Freitas was correct as it relates to markets but the world has moved on rapidly and if farmers do not move on, they will always be left behind.
The government no longer buys produce or sets prices, he said. According to him, in the past, price control led to the destruction of agriculture in Guyana. “Do we want to go there again,” he asked. He said that if a marketing board is set up for ‘other crops,’ farmers will have to sell to the board at fixed prices and will only be allowed to sell to the board. “It will be total control,” he said.
The minister said that his ministry is taking the value-chain approach and wants farmers to be a part of this. He dubbed it a new approach for a new agriculture. Persaud said that they want farmers to form themselves in clusters. “We want our farmers to be part of exporting so they are not ripped off,” he said.
He added that government has been linking buyers directly to farmers but pointed out that there are also issues of price, quality and reliability.
He said that what De Freitas had spoken of in relation to the ‘red tape’ incident was a one-off incident and the customs officer was dismissed.
He also pointed out that Charity is not a port and there are requirements such as phyto-sanitary requirements that have to be met. He also pointed to the New Guyana Marketing Corporation setting up of a marketing information system.
”Much more need to be done in the area of marketing”, the Minister acknowledged. He said that Guyana has had a devil’s job in relation to entering the markets of CARICOM. Citing St. Lucia, he said that Guyana paid for experts from that country to come here to do certification. He said that the expenses ran into millions of dollars but up to now the Protocol has not been sent to the authorities here, despite repeated calls.
Persaud also said that they have had to “bang down” the government of Trinidad’s door to get them to expand the list of items that farmers here can now export to that country. “If CARICOM is not responsive, we will pursue extra-regional markets”, the Minister said. He also alluded to getting into processing.
He said that exports for this year has gone up by 36% while over the last decade there was a 300% increase in the export of non-traditional produce. “The days of folding our hands and saying government must get it done, those days are over”, he further said.
