The Greater Guyana Initiative (GGI) – a 10-year project by ExxonMobil and its Stabroek Block partners – has funded a Hinterland Poultry Project valued at more than $120 million (US$608,000) to boost poultry production in the hinterland regions.
The initiative, also called the ‘EggSandwich Project,’ is the first regional socioeconomic project to be funded by the $20 billion GGI.
A release from ExxonMobil’s subsidiary, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limit-ed said the project is focused on enabling hinterland residents to raise their local poultry capacity in hopes of enhancing consumer access to high quality local poultry products and supporting economic independence.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was on February 22 with local company, The Consultancy Group (TCG), which is the implementation partner for the project. TCG will work with the Rupununi Live-stock Producers Association (RLPA) to nurture poultry production in the hinterland.
“Our job is really to take them at a place where they’re able to take the really fantastic work that they’ve been doing in the Rupununi outwards to the other hinterland regions. Our job is really as stewards to help them along, get them to where they need to be,” TCG Lead Consultant Timothy McIntosh was quoted as saying in the release.
McIntosh said that in 2018, an estimated $300 million in poultry meat was imported into the Rupununi from Brazil. This project, he said, can benefit some 25,000 people from the hinterland.
President of ExxonMobil Guyana Alistair Routledge noted in the release that the project is geared towards sustainable development as part of the GGI.
“It is exciting. It is where we implement the GGI. A lot of it so far, we’ve been getting traction with the educational part of it, whether it’s TVET, the University of Guyana … this is the first significant project which is getting to the sustainable economy part. Education, of course, builds that foundation but this is helping more practically,” he said.
CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited’s (CPGL) Regional Manager Anand Gohil and Projects Controls Manager Huang Zhao were also in attendance at the signing for the project.
The Greater Guyana Initiative was launched in February 2021 by Exxon-Mobil and its co-venturers Hess and CPGL. It will fund capacity-building projects in keeping with the country’s overall development objectives.
