The launch of a US$2m agro-processing centre and cold storage bond yesterday is only the beginning of the transformation of the shuttered Wales Sugar Estate into a 200-acre Agro-Industrial Park which will see residents from nearby villages benefiting from the investment.
So says the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) which yesterday unveiled plans for the West Bank Demerara area, even as it said that the announcements for projects mere days from the March 2nd 2020 General and Regional Elections are in no way political.
“These are not election gimmicks, they represent NICIL’s vision to change as we utilize those same lands that were once demarcated for sugar cane, to produce something else, something tangible as well and something that expresses revolutionary and transformative change for the people of Guyana,” NICIL’s Privatisation Specialist Rachel Henry yesterday said at the launch.
“Today marks the official announcement for the starting of a world-class Agro-Industrial Park which will be located right on the Wales Estate. As part of NICIL’s vision to change how things are done in the agriculture sector and to support forward-thinking agro processors, we have had our ears on the ground and have been observing the anomalies in the value-chain system. As custodians to the land depository, our roll out plan is to address the constraints that are present within the current value-chain,” she added.
The Wales estate was shut at the end of 2016 and hundreds of workers were left without options. It has taken the APNU+AFC government more than three years to come up with this project as an alternative.
Henry said that NICIL has taken note that sustainability of the foods planted is a constraint that needs to be addressed and in this regard the agency has planned accordingly.
NICIL, she said, has “invested in advanced and quite contemporary agro-processing equipment” which will be used to facilitate businesses at the park as here in Guyana too many crops go to waste.
NICIL said that it will be the facilitator of employment opportunities, knowledge transfers and training and development for especially the youth of Guyana.
“NICIL will engage the private sector and philanthropic institutions to partner with us in the construction of an agro processing centre where farmers at our Wales Estate and neighbouring villages will have an avenue to process their harvest.
Yesterday’s venture is being undertaken by the Caribbean Marketing Enterprise Inc (CMEI) which is headed by US-based Guyanese, Edmon Braithwaite and includes six other businesspersons whom he says are US millionaires. CMEI is also investing in hotel projects here at Ogle.
Braithwaite told attendees that he will ensure that the interest of Guyanese is always at the forefront of any business proposal he makes to foreign investors and that the project at Wales will see locals from the area given the opportunity to themselves invest.
With some of the lands from the Wales estate to be sold to residents from the area, some of whom would have lost their jobs when the estate was closed at the end of 2016, the project’s vision is to provide storage, processing and marketing opportunities to local farmers. Two former Wales estate employees who were recipient of lands were at yesterday’s opening and spoke about what they envision from the project. “I already farm pineapples and cassava and will get about 5 to 10 acres. Me want to plant five-finger and citrus because that have market,” 27-year-old Dhanpaul Samaroo told Stabroek News.
He said that he believes that the investors will assist because they have given their word that if he can produce the crops they will help him to find the markets overseas.
For 67-year-old Harry Ketwaroo, his project will be to leave an inheritance for his children and grandchildren.
“I get a pension from GuySuCo but I love farming and have been doing so all my life. I will get about five acres from one field and will farm cash crops. For me is not about making money and them things but I want my family to be comfortable and have something to bring in money to feed them long after I am gone. I think this is what this lil something here will give me,” he said.
For CMEI partner, Mike Elliott, the venture allows his company the opportunity to diversify its investments into a plan he believes could only get better. He said that the cold storage bond and processing facility was just “a single component” of an overall blueprint for the community, as he pointed out the growing markets for organic foods that are so easily accessible here. “We want to create a … partnership. We tried to figure out how do we get the products to the market; if by boat or by air. We can use these products because they are vast and they are in huge demand,” he said, while promising to ensure that residents are given the help they need to see their businesses succeed.
