Perhaps the most interesting feature of Guyana’s agro-processing sector is the way in which the contemporary practice links the present to the past in ‘processing’ agricultural produce to produce a range of food seasonings and condiments that are an integral part of what we eat. The practice has been embedded in our cooking and eating culture from time immemorial, the previous manifestations having more to do with satisfying our own tastes than with the pursuit of any serious entrepreneurial ambition. In more recent years agro- processing has grown as an industry, products becoming more widely available to the satisfaction of the country’s incurable ‘foodies,’ for whom eating would hold no pleasure unless what is put before them is ‘ramped up’ by some pickle, pepper or other taste-enhancing condiment. Our agro processing pursuits have also yielded ‘sweets’ like tamarind balls and sugar cake, among others, consumption of which, contrary to popular belief, is not confined to children. Information emanating from the Guyana Shop where a range of agro processed goods are usually readily available also point to a high demand for agro-processed products amongst visiting Guyanese and whilst there are no reliable statistics with which to provide an accurate idea of the extent to which they are consumed, their widespread popularity (here, tamarind balls are one of the better examples) has never been seriously questioned.
But it goes beyond that. In its own particular way agro processing has provided an avenue to self-belief and in some outstanding instances, entrepreneurship, for many Guyanese, mostly women who, but for agro processing, might well have considered themselves otherwise talentless. We have seen, somewhere, agro processing described as a “set of techno economic activities carried out for conservation and handling of agricultural produce and to make it usable as food, feed, fibre, fuel or industrial raw material. Ours is a much more basic understanding of what agro processing is. In essence, it is mostly about a reaching back into the kitchens of our mothers and grandmothers to produce hopefully improved variations of original products, tweaked and re-tweaked through the ages, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.
Beyond Guyana, agro processing has become integral to economic development and food security particularly among poor communities in developing countries with the more up market end of the global market also creating a significant level of global demand.
Here in Guyana, one of the shortcomings of the agro-processing industry is that it has not, over the years, attracted the kind of significant investment from either the public or private sector, so that with a few notable private sector exceptions the pursuit of agro processing is still largely limited to small, frequently labour intensive operations that do not benefit from the contemporary technology which, these days, is available to the sector across the world and which can significantly enhance the efficiency of our own operations. These days, too, agro processing has been ‘burdened with the requirement of product standards which have to do not just with the wholesomeness of what is produced but also with product presentation. Here again, a lack of investment in both the science of food- processing, not least the phyto-sanitary dimension and in the high-cost packaging and labeling necessary to win consumer attention on what has become a highly competitive market, continue to retard the growth of the sector.
It is, unquestionably, altogether fair to say, that viewed in its historical context, our agro- processing sector, given the natural advantages (like the abundant availability of fruit and vegetables) afforded it when compared with the rest of the Caribbean, has underperformed for the reasons already mentioned. That said, one of the more significant developments in the local economy in the past decade or so, is the emergence of a new sense of standards and entrepreneurship in the sector, aided, these days by a somewhat greater willingness of local food outlets to support a ‘buy local’ perspective on food consumption and the still limited but nonetheless welcome state-backed efforts through the work of The Guyana Shop and events like the now popular Farmers Markets.’ That, however, is not enough. Agro processing as a sector has earned and deserves much more support than has been afforded up to this time. Warnings (which are likely to increase in intensity) are likely to become more intense with the maturation of an oil and gas economy, about the importance of not jettisoning agriculture and agro processing from the country’s productive pursuits. In fact, those warnings have suddenly added a new dimension to the whole phenomenon of agro processing in Guyana and it is for both the state and the private sector to develop and implement robust policies which ensure that agro processing is not left behind. Here, is not just a question of making ‘the right noises’ (much of this has already been happening) but of embedding in any development strategy, going forward, a structured plan for the coexistence of agro-processing with all of the various other ‘industries’ that might derive from the advent of oil and gas.
It surely cannot be lost to us as a country that the contemporary global agro processing sector is located at the heart of a critical economic complex that bears the responsibility for feeding populations globally. The position occupied by the agri-food industry within the food system may vary from country to country though what has increasingly emerged in recent decades is a convergence towards a global agro-industrial sector, a model in which the agro processing industry plays a critical role.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that in a number of key developed countries agro processing (or the agri foods sector) is primarily the largest subsection of the manufacturing industries, representing in many instances between 10% and to 35% of the sector. The significance of the sector relates, crucially, to its technical and economic proximity to agriculture, a circumstance that can hardly be lost to Guyana.
Setting aside what, increasingly, is being acknowledged as the central role which agro processing has to play in responding to the seemingly inexhaustible demand for food, globally, the role that it has already been playing here in Guyana in turning out a new and perhaps unexpected breed of entrepreneurs, mostly among working class women who, hitherto, might have perceived themselves as having only limited if, indeed, any employment prospects, is one that deserves to be celebrated.
