President of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA), Rafeek Khan on Friday challenged the country to deliver on the vision of being the regional breadbasket and to cut food imports.
Speaking at a GMSA business luncheon in the presence of Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha who had been invited to address the gathering in anticipation of Agriculture Month, Khan said “Guyana has been an important supplier of fresh farm produce and processed farm products to the Caribbean. While we have the potential to be the breadbasket of the Caribbean, I would like to challenge our dear country of Guyana to realize this ambitious desire locally first”.
He said that in previous years, imports of agricultural products far exceeded exports, and there needs to be a strategy to reverse this continuous trend.
“For this to happen we need more export-oriented domestic production and manufacturing of agro products,” Khan told the gathering.
According to a release from the GMSA, he urged his audience to “collectively pay attention to household food security and nutrition by putting measures in place (to) mitigate adverse effects of seasonal food production and price volatilities. He encouraged everyone to get involved in home-gardening as home gardens are an integral part of local food systems and the agricultural landscape of developing countries, such as Guyana”.
For decades, Guyana and CARICOM have failed in efforts at large-scale agricultural production to help cut the regional food import bill.
In his address, Mustapha cited measures that the PPP/C government is taking to expand food production.
According to the release, he said that the Ministry has created an environment which supports investment opportunities and recovery efforts in priority areas such as agro-processing, coconut, corn and soya bean, beef, dairy, poultry and aquaculture development.
He said that with the injection of $262m, the Ministry will be establishing certified processing facilities in Regions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10, which will be utilized for commercial production and product development to assist small and medium agro- processors.
He added that the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) will be focusing on subsidizing raw materials for agro-processors, to aid in reducing their production costs. He said that the GMC has some 2,100 locally produced items that are also available on supermarket shelves. He called on the private sector to buy local and reduce the imports of similar products.
Mustapha expressed his concern over dairy imports. He said that dairy as a percentage of the value of food imports increased from 4.3% to 8.7% between 2018 and 2019, with an average import bill of US$27M. He noted the recent investment in the establishment of dairy processing facilities by Demerara Distillers Limited and the Amaya Milk Com-pany. He adverted to some of the Government’s incentives for investment in the livestock sector, including VAT-free concessions and waivers on Import Duty for machinery, equipment tools and supplies for agro-processing.
Another investment for livestock includes the establishment of abattoirs that meet international Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points standards.
With the gas to shore project expected by 2024, the Minister said that it will not only benefit the agriculture sector immensely as the cost of energy can fall by as much as 50%, but will also allow the country to conserve on foreign exchange which is lost through the importation of fuel.
The Minister also referred to the opening up of arable lands in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
He added that the Minis-try is implementing the CARICOM Agri-Food Sys-tem Strategy which focuses on a fully commercialized regional food system with emphasis on target groups such as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
