Strong, officially backed ‘buy local’ advocacy is one of the recommendations which the Head of the Guyana Agro Processors Association, the umbrella body for at least 25 small and medium-sized local food manufacturing entities, is expected to make in his presentation at today’s National Agro-processing Forum at the Inter-national Conference Centre, Liliendaal.
“It is absolutely not a matter of campaigning against foreign imports. It is really a matter of saying to consumers that the local products are fully deserving of their support and patronage because they are just as good in terms of quality and they are as healthy and as nutritious as much of what we import,” President of the Association Ram Prashad told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week.
“What we need to do, among other things, to encourage local agro-processors to grow and to promote the sector is to launch and sustain an aggressive buy local campaign. This is not a matter of coercion it is a matter of challenging consumers to discover that there are local products that surpass imported ones in terms of value and food quality,” Prashad said.
According to Prashad, while there appears to be “an enhanced official awareness” of the importance of the agro-processing sector to the country’s economy “there is much more that can be done, officially and at the level of local organisations, to enhance the growth of the sector.”
Estimates that exclude the major players in the sector like Banks DIH Ltd, Demerara Distillers Ltd and the Beharry Group of Companies place the worth of the sector at around $300 million, though Prashad said that potentially it could be worth much more. “Agro-processing possesses genuine potential to bring far greater worth to both our agriculture and our manufacturing sectors,” Prashad said. “One of the things that makes us an ideal hub for agro-processing is our significant agricultural base and the fact that by investing in agro-processing we will be better positioning ourselves to utilise the large quantities of food that we throw away because we are yet to develop reliable food preservation techniques locally,” Prashad said.
He told Stabroek Business that while the entire agro-processing sector could use the support of government, going forward, the interest of the association was in “the creation of an enabling environment in which the sector could do business efficiently and effectively.” He said that such official support as ought to be forthcoming for the sector should target, particularly, the large numbers of small and micro producers and potential producers who need to be encouraged to remain in the sector.
“I believe, for example, that there is something to be said for the creation of an agro-processing incubator in Guyana, a properly equipped and properly run facility that will allow small producers access to an entity that will enable them to manufacture, package and label their products,” he said. The incubator provides all the facilities necessary for the production process, the manufacturer turns up with the raw material, pays an agreed fee, utilises the incubator and takes the product off to market.” Prashad told Stabroek Business that conceivably a modest facility of this kind might be sourced in Brazil or India for around $50 million.
He said his presentation at today’s forum will reflect some of the views gleaned directly from other members of the association and is also likely to push for what he described as “a synchronised approach” to agro-processing that involves all of the key players in the sector in “a single process.”
While today’s event will feature displays of a manufactured products currently on the local market, Prashad said he hoped the essence of the event would be the “coming together of stakeholders” to seek to “iron out” the problems of the sector.
Meanwhile, he said that any long-term view of the prospects for the sector cannot be seriously contemplated “unless we look seriously at the high cost of electricity and its impact on the sector. We also need to examine whether we can create a facility that can manufacture bottles and labels and offer these in modest quantities and at affordable prices to small producers in the sector. We need to look at ways of ensuring the training that takes account of international food safety standards can reach small manufacturers.”
