With agro-processing, over the past two decades, having gradually worked its way towards becoming one of the fastest-growing generators of employment in Guyana, the recent announcement that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is partnering with a US/Guyana initiative to advance the technology base of the agro-processing industry here ought to attract significant interest among local agro-processors.
Last week, USAID announced that it was teaming up with the Guyana Economic Development Trust (GEDT) a Guyanese-led initiative that supports innovation in science, technology and agriculture, to launch what is being described as an Economic Development Incubator and Accelerator (EDIA) for Guyanese agro-processors.
The announcement goes directly to the heart of seeking to address the challenge of helping the local agro- processing sector to significantly raise its game against the backdrop of what, up until now, has been its negligible contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
While agro-processing in Guyana has been credited with contributions to job-creation and by extension, enhancing the well-being of working class families locally, insufficient official interest in the growth of the sector has been blamed largely for its failure to impact on ‘the numbers’ insofar as its contribution to the country’s GDP is concerned. Much of the problem reposes in the failure of government to invest meaningfully in the sector either through the adequate funding of the state-run Small Business Bureau (SBB) or through other avenues for the financing of the sector. Indeed, the growth of the agro-processing sector in Guyana has been due, largely, to the diligence and self-reliance of modest investors and, on occasion, through support initiatives that have come from the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA). The remaining Business Support Organizations (BSO) including the Private Sector Commission (PSC) have demonstrated an indifference to the well-being of the agro-processing sector.
Unsurprisingly, according to international data, Guyana’s production of processed foods including fruit preserves, sauces, seasonings and ground spices, snack foods, and herbal teas, were negligible relative to the country’s reputation for an agricultural sector that produces most of the requisite raw material to significantly support the agro-processing sector.
Over the years, numerous engagements between the government and the private sector, spearheaded by the GMSA have failed to persuade government to provide a more generous measure of support for agro-processing through assistance with the importation of equipment that can optimise processing and production.
USAID’s Regional Representative for the Eastern Caribbean, Clinton White, is quoted as saying that the agency sees the EDIA as an “innovative private sector project that will support development in the region while ushering in prosperity.” White is further quoted as saying that “small and growing businesses… need more capital and technical assistance, requisites which he said are important since small businesses are important to the future of a region where climate resilience has been “a significant issue.” The role of a robust agricultural and agro-processing sector in a climate-vulnerable economy has not been an issue that has been a focal point in the country’s official agricultural sector as reflected in climate-smart national policies.
GEDT Chief Executive Officer Oslene Carrington is quoted as saying that the EDIA will, in collaboration with its technical partners, provide up to thirty local agro-processors with “training and hands-on technical assistance.” Five of the most promising entities will receive non-reimbursable grants. Those grants, Carrington is quoted as saying, will go to those entities evincing “the greatest change of driving export growth.”
Applications for the programme will be open shortly and virtual training will begin in September.
