The CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO) has praised the announcement by President Irfaan Ali of the lowering of financing costs for poultry farmers here and says the regional industry can potentially displace extra-regional imports of US$149 million per annum.
On Saturday, Ali announced that the interest rate for loans to the poultry sector would fall from 8% to 5% following discussions with four commercial banks.
In a statement yesterday, the CPSO said that poultry meat is among the nineteen agri-food opportunities highlighted in the Region’s Twenty-Five by Twenty-Five goals for extra-regional import displacement, endorsed by the CARICOM Heads of Government (CHoGs). It said that this initiative, announced by President Ali, properly addresses the key issues of the ‘cost of finance’ and the ‘cost of feed’, which have been two major concerns of farmers and processors, in Guyana and across the Community. The CPSO noted that measures to increase rice, corn, and soy production as key inputs to poultry feed, were among the interventions announced by the President.