Raymond Trotz believes that next week’s Coconut Festival to be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre is just the sort of impetus which the local industry needs in its pursuit of a rejuvenation.
Guyana is currently benefiting from a decidedly modest share of a multibillion-dollar global coconut industry, buoyed in recent years by a widespread focus on linkages between the coconut and its by-products and good health.
The rise of the global coconut industry has been nothing short of meteoric. In 2008-2009 the size of the industry was measured at around 300 metric tonnes. By 2014 it had grown to around 11,000 metric tonnes. It is estimated that the global coconut water industry alone will be worth around US$4 billion by 2019.
By contrast, the local coconut sector has not made any strides worth shouting about. Over the years sizeable coconut groves in coastal areas have been abandoned and with trees having aged the industry is in search of new planting material. Trotz reckons that with the region contributing “probably no more than one per cent” of global coconut production there is an opportunity for growth of the sector in Guyana. Our biggest markets up to this time have been the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago.
By styling the October 20 – 22 event a festival, the organizers have declared their intention to use it as much to engage in local and international discourse on the state of the global industry and just how Guyana can tap into the lucrative international market as to create a heightened local awareness of the coconut both as a viable option for the agricultural sector as a potential opportunity for a valued-added sector that is already beginning to show signs of interest. Both coconut water and coconut oil are already being exported, albeit still in relatively modest quantities.
Trotz, who along with the country’s Director of Tourism Donald Sinclair is among the prime movers behind the planning of the event, says that for Guyana it ought to provide “a vision of what is possible.” The gathering in Georgetown for the event will include representatives of the key coconut-growing regions of the world including Asia. India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico are among the countries that will be part of the event whose profile will be lifted considerably by the presence here of the Executive Director of the highly influential Asian and Pacific Coconut Community Uron Salum.
Trotz says there will be no shortage of expert deliberations on key issues in the global coconut industry that will allow for participation of local organizations including the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) and Institute of Applied Science and Technology, regional organizations including the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute and international organizations like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Setting aside a NAREI presentation on the opening day on “the state of the industry,” Guyana is expected to evince keen interest in the discourses that are likely to arise out of presentations on “Coconut Diversity in Guyana,” “Coconut Industry Development for the Caribbean,” and “Coconuts and Agro-Tourism,” a presentation that will be made by the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana.
There are other areas of interest for Guyana too. Trotz says that one of the key presentations of the entire event is likely to be Salum’s on “The Global Scenario of the Coconut Sector.” He believes too that the presence of Salum in Guyana also provides a more than useful opportunity for Guyana to restate its interest in membership of the globally influential Asian and Pacific Coconut Community.
With the event now less than a week away, Trotz discussed with the Stabroek Business the desirability of attracting wider participation from local coconut farmers and prospective farmers as well as entrepreneurs who may be eyeing the prospects of cashing in on what is now a highly lucrative global market. Contextually, Trotz, who chairs the National Stakeholders Platform for Coconut Development, attaches particular significance to the inputs that will be made by IDB Country Representative Sophie Makonnen, including on financing the sector, in the light of the commitment already given by the IDB to supporting the resuscitation of the of the coconut industry in Guyana.
Setting aside the broader issues on which the festival is likely to focus, Trotz says it also provides opportunity for facilitating more permanent regional and hemispheric ties in the coconut industry given the fact that representatives of countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil and Mexico will be in Georgetown for the event.
Further, he listed Guyana’s interest in exploring the wider entrepreneurial potential of various areas of the industry including coconut foods – milk, shredded coconut – coconut drinks and oils and the industrial uses of coconuts.
