On Saturday the Richmonds had arrived at D’Urban Park from Jacklow in the Pomeroon River hopeful that the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC) Farmers’ Market might point the way to a definitive upward climb in their farming fortunes. Oscar and Michellina had taken a decision that they would be full-time farmers about ten years ago, shortly after they had been married. They had, Michellina said, made the decision ‘with their eyes wide open,’ – so to speak, aware that the journey would be one of good times as well as bad times. The years have, she says, brought no real surprises and a point has been reached where they are in it for the long haul.
On Saturday, at the GMC’s Fourth Farmers’ Market, the couple were selling cassareep, cassava bread, coconut water, plantains, citrus, dehydrated plantain chips, porridge mix, processed carambola and avocados.
They had made the trip from Pomeroon full of expectation, aware that events of this kind could bring both instant gratification arising out of immediate sales as well as longer-term supply contracts, the latter allowing for better prices and much higher volumes of sales. Long before the end of the trading period, however, the situation became clear. There would be no significant long-term contracts; there had been, however, a sufficient volume of sales to have made the event worth the while. That had left the couple satisfied, if not ecstatic. It is only when you are an integral part of the business that you can fully understand the implications of having to absorb the costs of moving large volumes of produce from farm to market then having to take much of it back with you. That, however, was not the case with this Pomeroon couple. They had ridden their luck to get their produce to D’Urban Park on Saturday and at the end of the day they had felt no overwhelming reason to be disappointed.
Oscar and Michellina had spent the first three years of their involvement in business as middlemen, buying farm produce from farmers in the Pomeroon River then re-selling to retailers at the municipal markets in Georgetown. Afterwards, there had been a hiatus, the lure of mining, not least the far greater returns that derived therefrom, pulling the couple in that direction. Mining didn’t work for them and after a year they returned to looking to the agriculture sector for their livelihood.
The land on which they farm is a fifty-acre plot acquired by Oscar’s father, Frank Richmond, more than thirty years ago, during his stint as General Manager of Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) in Region Two. Oscar and Michellina had decided to use their returns from mining to focus on fifteen acres. Flooding ravages many farms in the Pomeroon River and the Richmonds invested in raising the levels of the farmland by empoldering the land to stave off flooding.
In the Pomeroon, hired labour too, poses a challenge. As was once the case with Oscar, the lure of gold had sent young men from the Pomeroon in the direction of the mining areas. Some of them returned and had put their earnings from the ‘gold bush’ into boat-building. On the whole, there appeared to be a reluctance to invest in farming.
The couple, however, have managed to recruit and retain two workers…one full time, the other part-time. That is no mean feat in the Pomeroon. There had been instances in which the Richmonds had had to harvest their crops alone. She recalled an instance in which they had run themselves ragged harvesting an entire acre of red peas after which Oscar had to thresh the peas on his own.
The scarcity of labour can make farming a back-breaking pursuit. Carambola cultivation, for example, may be profitable, but when, like Oscar, you find yourself having to single-handedly load 125 eighty-pound bags of the fruit onto a boat at Jacklow then unload the consignment, again alone, onto a Canter at Charity to be transported to Georgetown, then there are times when you seriously question whether the whole effort is worth the while.
Hired labourers, when you can recruit them, ask as much as $25,000 for a loading or unloading exercise. The Richmonds cannot afford those prices which must be added to amounts of a further $30,000 to $45,000 to secure a Canter to move the goods from Charity to Georgetown. One of the items currently on the top of their agenda is acquiring a truck of their own.
Pomeroon farmers are a tough, practical breed, often scathing in their criticism of state-run support systems that make very little difference. When, therefore, they shower praise on the support that they receive from the state, that praise is genuine. The Richmonds are generous in their praise of the support they received from the GMC. When, for example, eagle-eyed middlemen had sought to acquire their produce at ‘next to nothing’ prices and afterwards secure enormous profits on the retail market, the GMC had stepped in to secure a more favourable deal for them. It had taken time for that arrangement to be arrived at. Indeed, it had been realised only after Michellina herself had put her foot down on the ‘rock bottom’ prices being offered by the middlemen and what, she said was sometimes the outright thievery associated with the manipulation of the weighing process.
Specifically, Michellina told the avocado story. In season, you can buy a relatively small avocado from a Georgetown vendor for around $300. Prices for the larger ones can vary between $500 and (if you buy them in a supermarket) $800. Once the season expires prices quickly go ‘through the roof.’ Michellina says that ‘in season’, middlemen purchase her avocadoes at around $30 each. She recalled an instance when, before her very eyes, a middleman, having just purchased her consignment of avocado at $30 each, immediately re-sold the lot for $500 each. That incident, she said, occurred three years ago and occurrences like that are still prevalent. The more common price differential hovers around $200 for an avocado purchased from the farmer for way below $100.
Michellina dwells on the issue. If the supporting transportation system were less costly and more efficient, a whole range of fruit and vegetables can reach consumers in Georgetown and its environs from farms in the far-flung regions.
Experiences like the avocado ‘rip off’ have helped push the couple into agro-processing. Last October, after attending a short course in agro-processing at the Guyana School of Agriculture, Michellina began making plantain flour, dehydrated plantain chips, cassareep, alcoholic and non-alcoholic fruits for cake, porridge mixes and plantain flour. The new entrepreneurial initiative, she says, is encountering reasonable success. Their cassareep and cake mixes ‘did well’ last Christmas whilst perceived opportunities with dehydrated plantain chips has led her in the direction of contemplating the acquisition of a solar dryer to take account of weather conditions that do not favour sun-drying.
Determined to consolidate their existing gains, the Richmonds are currently engaged with the Small Business Bureau (SBB) regarding the acquisition of funding for the purchase of a motorised mill for the grinding of ingredients for some of the products that they manufacture.
They are particularly proud of having acquired a reliable market for their agro-produce, some of which can be bought at the GMC’s Guyana Shop at Robb and Alexander streets in Georgetown. Recently, they entered into negotiations with Massy Supermarket for their products to be sold there.
Having long had to cope with market challenges, the Richmonds understandably, regard the GMC’s Farmers’ Market as a silver lining behind what, all too frequently, are constraints associated with middlemen keen to extract prices that gouge the profits of hard-working farmers. This practice, they believe, prevails on account of logistical problems that push farm-to-market costs up beyond the reach of the farmers, opening the way for exploitation.
They believe that farmers, the private sector support bodies and government ought to be putting their heads together in search of a solution.
