Evidence of the continual strengthening of links between the agricultural and agro-processing sectors is evidenced in the fact that, increasingly and as their financial fortunes become more favourable, agro-processors are beginning to examine the prospects of investing in modest agricultural plots, sufficient to cultivate crops that are tied to their agro-processing pursuits and perhaps to utilise whatever remains for their own purposes.
Earlier this month, seven of eleven agro-processors to whom this newspaper spoke, revealed that the high cost of acquiring raw material (farm products) for their manufacturing pursuits had triggered a decision to venture into small-scale agriculture. Some of the crops being contemplated by the agro-processors are sweet potatoes, limes, eddoes, ginger and carambola. The idea, they all say, is to acquire modest parcels of land on which to cultivate their chosen crops all of which, after cultivation, will be moved to factories (some of these are makeshift factories) for processing.
It is, however, a slow process, teeming with challenges not least of which are the costs associated with their contemplated diversification. The primary restraint is the high cost of acquiring land for farming, a consideration that has spawned the idea of creating at least one agro-processors’ cooperative in the first instance that will allow for a number of agro-processors to cultivate their individual preferred crops on parcels of a relatively large plot of land. This idea had been mooted during a discourse between this newspaper and some former agro-processing students drawn from the University of Guyana. The idea is yet to get off the ground.
That, however, is no reason for doom and gloom in the agro-processing sector. Setting aside the sense of industry that, these days, reflects the modus operandi of local agro-processors, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is demonstrating a seeming preparedness to supersede local banking institutions in providing support for the agro-processing sector. In October last year the CDB launched an “Improving Quality Standards of Agro-Processors through Training” project in Georgetown, contributing US$90,000 to the US$160,000 project.
In a statement seemingly intended to underscore the importance which the CDB attaches to agro-processing, visiting bank official, Zamani Moodie, had said that the project was “absolutely critical” to the growth of the local agro-processing sector. Moodie also said that the bank was backing the country’s agricultural sector, and by extension its agro-processing sector, to significantly reduce hunger and poverty.
Projects like the CDB’s Quality Standards Initiative (coupled with the technical and financial inputs that the agro-processing sector has received from the Small Business Bureau) have not only broadened the knowledge base of local agro-processors but improved their confidence in the ‘new generation’ of agro-produce that has emerged in recent years. The ‘new generation’ of products is characterised by significantly upgraded standards of manufacturing and food safety protocols as well as production presentation and marketing attributes that have opened up significant new opportunities at the levels of both local and overseas markets.
