The services of the Guyana Marketing Corporation, which offers a market place for local agro processing businesses, will be decentralised with the planned creation of new shops across four regions, according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh.
The new agribusinesses incubators will be housed at Parika, in Region Three, Fort Wellington in Region Five, St. Ignatius in Region Nine and Watooka in Region 10, Singh disclosed in his budget presentation on Wednesday
According to Singh, the Sophia, Parika and Mabaruma agro-processing and packaging facilities will also be upgraded at a cost of $96.5 million.
“These facilities, along with supportive market research, will assist producers in meeting the international market protocols for their products and allow access to new markets,” he added.
The Minister went on to state that for this year money has also been allocated to retrofit and equip facilities at White Water Creek, in Region One; Charity, in Region Two; and Shulinab, in Region Nine. These upgraded facilities, Singh said, will produce staples of the local indigenous people’s diet, such as cassava bread, casareep, tuma pot water, cassava meal, wines, and dehydrated products along noncommercial products such as sweet potato and banana flours.
During the course of the year, the Minister also said, the works of the GMC will be backed by market research for vegetables, roots and tubers, plantain, citrus and edible palm to inform the medium-term export strategy.
Government’s intervention in the agro-processing industry is critical for business viability for the development of private sector capacity in post-harvest options, Singh emphasised in his budget speech. He told the House that in the last year government made investments that led to the realisation of a one-stop agri-business incubator and cold storage and agro-processing facilities. He called these interventions that have improved value-added production in the agriculture sector.
Additionally, with much demand for processed coconut products and the expanding market for coconut water, Singh also announced that government will be investing in coconut estates.
“Government has allocated $66 million in 2022… This allocation will support the expansion of coconut cultivation and production, with decentralised and strengthened services to farmers; the establishment of three additional nurseries at Hosororo, Fort Wellington and Lethem, bringing a total of decentralised nurseries to nine across Guyana,” he said, while adding that the expansion will allow for the seedling production to reach 36,000 in 2022.
He further related that support to the industry will see the introduction of more value-added products, such as coconut fibre, from coconut waste. This initiative will also commence in the Pomeroon, and will be used for soil enhancement, Singh said.
