With local Agro Processors having reportedly created 130 new agro processed products last year, comments elicited by the Stabroek Business from Agro Processors in Regions Four, Five, Six and Ten suggest that the sector is looking to the Ministry of Agriculture to allocate a generous portion of its multi-billion dollar 2024 budget allocation to facilitate continued growth in the sector. Two Agro Agro-processors located in Region Four advocated that the number of major opportunities for the local marketing of agro-processed commodities be increased, with one of the two recommending that government fund at least two ‘product exposure’ trips in parts of the Caribbean for ‘packages’ of agro produce created by groups from across the country. Both suggested that the Agro Processors selected for intra-regional product promotion events be rotated.
While the report on the likely agenda for the agro processing sector in what will be a big-spending year for the Ministry of Agriculture points to likely considerable growth in agro processing, respondents in the named regions to questions raised by the Stabroek Business earlier this week expressed points of views centering around the creation of more local, regional and international markets for product promotion, investment in what one respondent described as “more generous lending” to existing and aspiring agro processors as well as upgrading of existing facilities for the production of products in the Agro Processing sector. The disclosure in this year’s budget presentation that the GMC will be operating with its biggest ever budget would appear to have raised hopes among some Agro Processors that marketing opportunities will increase significantly and that more adequate financing for the strengthening of the sector will now be a major official consideration.
Two of the interviewed Agro Processors (from Regions Five and Six) suggested that ways be found of linking the pursuits of the Agro Processing and Agriculture sectors more closely so as to ensure that envisaged growth in Agro Processing benefits from adequate support from the substantive agriculture budget. Meanwhile, three respondents from Regions Four and Six have expressed the view that “more space be found for ‘a wider variety’ of locally produced Agro processed products on supermarket shelves.” Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture disclosed that a number of Agro Processing facilities had been opened in various regions and that this was expected to create linkages between farmers and the facilities in the respective communities. Up to this time, it is unclear whether all of the facilities are ‘up and running’ and whether finished products manufactured in the functioning facilities were benefitting from adequate markets for their products.
The envisaged further growth of Guyana’s agro processing sector has resulted in an enhanced focus on whether more resources should not be injected into the expansion of the GUYEXPO product-promotion event and whether government might not wish to, first, remove the Guyana Marketing Corporation from within the ambit of the Ministry of Agriculture and adequately equip the agency with semi-autonomous operating status. Last year, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha disclosed that his Ministry had launched a number of ‘Shop Corners’ in pre-existing commercial trading outlets to enable the popularization of new locally manufactured agro produce. The Stabroek Business, however, has no information on the extent to which these Shop Corners have impacted on sales of locally manufactured agro produce.
