One good sign in the ongoing discourse on the commencement of oil exploitation in 2020 and the implications of the returns from it for the country’s future and direction of the economy is that it is not being allowed to entirely drown out the urging that other vital sectors not be ignored.
This is particularly relevant to agriculture, which over the decades, has been a key pillar of the country’s economy. It is, however, an issue that ought to be far more prominent on the government’s agenda.
The challenges in relatively recent years in the rice and sugar industries do not gainsay the reality that apart from the fact that in a broader sense our agricultural sector has always flourished, we have been able to position ourselves not only to export food to countries outside the region but to attract to ourselves the so far unearned sobriquet: bread basket of the Caribbean.
One other modest success for the agricultural sector is the discernable strides that we have made to build a base of sorts in agro-processing under pressure from trends in other parts of the world and notably in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, right here in the Caribbean. The progress that has been made in agro-processing has to do with both the application of fruit and vegetables in the production of condiments and food spices as well as in the steady improvement in product presentation, in the absence of which, we are beginning to understand, we would be hard-pressed to compete with much of the rest of the region far less the rest of the world.
It is in the pursuit of an expanded external market for much of what we grow and produce that we have fallen short. Sugar and rice have both enjoyed their day in the sun and while – insofar as by-products are concerned – our rums have done well on the international market we have been unable to match other countries with resources not necessarily much greater than ours – Jamaica being a good example – in getting our brands to make an impressive enough market impact globally.
Nor is it – according to many who have sampled our agro-produce – a question of quality. Setting aside product presentation – an area in which, as has already been said, we are gradually beginning to close the gap – there is, crucially, the issue of external marketing. Here we can lay claim to no more than modest accomplishment.
When we compare ourselves with Jamaica, for example, it is difficult not to think of the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) which, over the years, has made an impressive mark in both promoting Jamaican exports in Europe, North America and elsewhere and attracting foreign direct investment and facilitating foreign direct investment in the country. It is the same in Trinidad and Tobago where the government there has created exporTT Ltd. as the country’s national export facilitation organization with a mandate to generate export growth and diversification in the goods and services sectors, increase in the international competitiveness of exporters, develop new exporters across the various sectors of interest and expand into new markets based on market research on potential.
Here in Guyana we have not over the years, created a really robust external marketing infrastructure, responsibility in that area falling, variously to GUYMIDA, GO-Invest and various trade and investment promotion initiatives, like GUYEXPO that come and go without really leaving any really meaningful export promotion imprint. And however much we have sought to promote economic diplomacy (mostly the use of our missions abroad as satellites to help promote trade and investment) it has long been clear that we have never really been able to properly equip our missions to perform that role anywhere near as effectively as it ought to be performed.
At home, the promised agricultural buildout into the intermediate savannahs and the hinterland regions has been slow and stuttering, a function mostly of funding limitations (the promised Trinidad and Tobago private investment in local mega farms now seems to have disappeared altogether) and in the case of the hinterland logistical limitations arising out of terrain and transport limitations. Here again, public disclosures regarding rumoured large-scale Brazilian investment in mega farms in hinterland arears are, up until now, limited in what they tell us about concrete future plans.
The point that should be made at this juncture is that the expressed desirability of strengthening the country’s agricultural base, even as 2020 and the prospect of an ‘oil economy’ looms, has to be matched by some sort of plan or blueprint for the realization of this objective. Whether or not there is already in place (on contemplated) a strategic plan for the creation of a tactical linkage between an emerging oil and economy and a traditional agricultural base is one of the issues that surely ought to arise in any development planning scenario in the immediate future. If such a strategy exists (and ideally the private sector should make an input here) it should be shared with the nation. If not, we need to begin to create such a strategic plan now.
