As small Guyanese businessmen and women who attended this year’s Agro Fest event in Barbados continue to contemplate the ‘key takeaways’ from the event, some of the participants in the event are of the view that having invested in providing an opportunity to market their goods in an external market, the authorities should proceed seamlessly into opening up avenues that can complement the exposure and experience which the Agro Fest event had afforded them. While acknowledging that their participation in the event had afforded them limited exposure and in some instances “promising” market opportunities, the seven small business representatives with whom the Stabroek Business spoke were of the view that there was the risk of ‘losing momentum” as well as opportunity unless exposure to the Agro Fest event can be seen (as one participant in the discourse put it) as “part of a bigger process.”
The group agreed that while the experience had been “enlightening and beneficial” there had been, up to this time, no indication that the Barbados experience would “take us places.” However, in response to this assertion, one discussant in the Agro-processing sector said that what the Barbados exposure was supposed to do was to “give us a chance to hustle for ourselves” even though others said they expected “more guidance” in this regard. Three members of the group told the Stabroek Business that the Barbados experience had positioned them to begin to earnestly pursue markets in Barbados. Subsequent to the return of the Guyana contingent from the Barbados event, the Stabroek Business reported on the success that has been encountered by the local company, Only Coconuts, in securing a market in Barbados. One of the participants in the discourse told the Stabroek Business that she had succeeded in “selling off” all of the products that she had taken to Barbados and that the buyer has given a verbal commitment to extending the arrangement. Local Agro Processors have been calling on government to provide support through the creation of agro processing facilities in the various regions.
While it had been disclosed that the Guyana Marketing Corporation, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, has been assigned responsibility for moving the facilities to the stage of production following suitable commissioning undertakings, there has been no word up to this time as to whether these facilities were work-ready or otherwise. Back in January, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that Agro-processing facilities were to be established in Crabwood Creek and Orealla this year, undertakings which the Ministry said were “critical elements of the administration’s push for enhanced food security and broad-based sustainable economic growth.” Up to this time, no information has been officially made publicly available in the matter of the pace of progress towards the completion of these facilities. In circumstances where, for local Agro Processors, efficient production is dependent on access of effective processing facilities, modern production and packaging facilities are critical to centres to both product quality and product presentation, features that would enhance the competitiveness on local, regional and international markets.
