As Guyana’s significant untapped oil and gas resources appear increasingly likely to be the foundation on which the country’s socio-economic structure will be built, investors in other less well-appointed sectors of the country’s economy believe that the shifting of financial resources and a greater measure of official attention to those sectors ought to be accelerated as part of the country’s wider development plan.
Increasingly, the Stabroek Business’ opinion-seeking modest ‘polling’ undertakings among animated groups of business persons in the ‘lesser’ sectors of the country’s economy are beginning to bare opinions which suggest that businesses that appear to have the best chance of impacting on the country’s poverty-alleviation pursuits ought to attract a fair share of support from the ‘wealth pool’ that derives from the country’s oil ‘treasury. Feedback culled from occasional telephone ‘interviews’ with small businesses in the agro processing sector suggest that government still needs to do more to transfer more generous ‘helpings’ of the country’s oil and gas earnings to the development of an agro-processing sector which they say continues to make an encouraging contribution to the enhancement of the more modest local entrepreneurial ambitions.
While the outcomes of the exchanges between this newspaper and limited numbers of agro-processors appear to accept that oil and gas has opened significant potential growth pathways for ‘big business’ in Guyana, the discussants are of the view that the focus on how the country’s mainstream businesses are faring as oil and gas continues to grow the economy leaves less than sufficient room for corresponding attention to what are considered to be the ‘lesser’ sectors, notably the agro-processing sector. The respondents are of the view that while there are visible signs of growth ambition, as reflected in infrastructure and initiatives built around evidence of significant investments in investments like construction, there still appears to be less enthusiasm for consolidating the growth of what one respondent described as ‘the lesser sectors,’ including agro-processing.
The feedback that forms the basis of the Stabroek Business’ assessments derives from exchanges with discussants that are brief but intense. On the whole, the ‘returns’ from these encounters reflects a concern among emerging businessmen and women in the perceived ‘lesser’ sectors that these are not being adequately supported through allocation of a more generous share of the petro dollars that are now being ‘shoveled’ into the public treasury. This perspective continue to raise questions as to whether, up to this time, the oil-driven investment attention is not overwhelmingly slanted to further widen the gap between ‘big business’ and peripheral ‘hustles.’ What appeared to be of particular concern among the discussants was the fact that up to this time less than sufficient resources are being assigned to the substantive growth of the agro-processing sector through investment in strengthening links between agriculture and the value-added objectives of the agro-processing sector.
Particularly, the discussants were of the view that the potential for economic growth in the agro-processing sector does not appear to be matched by an official preparedness to broaden the base of access to financial resources sufficient to allow for a major ‘leap forward’ for the agro-processing sector. Particularly, discussants were of the view that the limitations of the Small Business Bureau in terms of its ability to provide adequate financial support – in the form of both loans and grants – for the accelerated growth of the agro-processing sector, particularly, is an issue which while widely known, is still to be properly addressed by government. “This needs to be addressed urgently if the sector is to make a more significant contribution to increasing employment and reducing poverty,” one contributor told the Stabroek Business.
Participants in the conversations with the Stabroek Business, some of whom had participated in the recent Barbados Agro Fest event were of the view that while the presence of their products in the sister CARICOM country had helped to raise the country’s profile in the sector, their contributions were yet to be adequately compensated through sufficient state investment to create a ‘leap forward’ in the sector. One contributor described government’s role in the growth of the sector as “not comparatively adequate” when account is taken of investments in other sectors of the country’s economy. While the government had announced back in June last year that it had made a $37 million investment in an initiative designed to boost the “agro-processing capacity” of the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), respondents, in their exchanges with this newspaper, wondered as to whether, up to this time, that investment had brought any discernable positive change to the Corporation’s contribution to the growth of the country’s agro-processing sector.
While one state-controlled media agency (which had said that the initiative had allowed for forward movement in the form of “the commissioning of six water tanks, two forklifts, four pallet jacks, five trolleys and one sewing machine at the GMC’s Sophia location” and that this would allow for “Guyana to better export fresh produce regionally, to countries such as Barbados and St. Lucia among others,” the participants in the Stabreok Business’ limited opinion survey inquired as to whether there was any evidence that could be placed in the public domain, up to this time, to support this assertion. Asked whether a March 2022 assertion attributed to the Ministry of Agriculture to the effect that local manufacturers had praised “the fulfillment of government’s promises as well as plans to further expand the (agro processing) sector,” some of the respondents, while noting the support which had been provided by government for local participation in the Barbados Agro Fest event in both 2022 and 2023, asserted that there had been no tangible evidence, up to this time, that exposure to Agro Fest had resulted in market gains for Guyanese participants.
Two years ago, in May 2021, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had reportedly disclosed at as virtual UN Food Systems forum that government had earmarked $800 million for the establishment of six agro-processing facilities across the country. A report in the state-run Chronicle back then had said that these facilities were to be established “in farming communities, notably Aranaputa and St. Ignatius in Region Nine; Black Bush Polder in Region Six; and Leguan.” Two years later, an official comprehensive update is yet to be issued on the ability provided with regard to the state of readiness of the promised facilities to discharge their stated missions, one respondent to the Stabroek Business’ inquiry told this newspaper. Meanwhile, a Farmer /Agro Processor who was part of the Stabroek Business’ mini survey said that the promised decrease in food loss and wastage which the Agriculture Minister had promised persists.
On the issue of inter-action between small businesses in the agro processing sector and state entities charged with responsibility for small business growth, respondents told the Stabroek Business that there needed to be a much closer relationship between the two. This, they felt would better position government to understand the challenges facing the sector, a circumstance that would better position the authorities to understand the challenges facing the sector relevant state entities and local Agro Processors and respond to those challenges. Of the Small Business Bureau, one participating Agro Processors told the Stabroek Business that “sometimes you get the impression from the way they respond that they really don’t understand the challenges which the sector faces. You can’t really attend to people’s needs if you do not know where the shoe is pinching,” the respondent told the Stabroek Business.
And according to another contributor there was “far too much of government telling us what to do. If you are going to build an Agro-Processing facility on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, the first time that we the farmers and Agro Processors hear about it should not be when we read about it in the newspapers,” the respondent said.
