Both Guyana and Suriname are expected to be represented at the 2024 Barbados three-day Agro Processing event scheduled to be staged from February 23rd to 25th according to a report in the Wednesday February 7th issue of Barbados Today. While this newspaper has seen no public announcement of Guyana’s participation in the event up to this time, the Barbados Today is reporting that the Guyana contingent will be putting on “another showcase” this year. This newspaper’s efforts to secure a briefing from the Guyana Office for Investment (GOINVEST) on Guyana’s participation in the event have borne no fruit so far since on the three separate occasions that we telephoned the office we were notified that the officers assigned to manage the process were unavailable. However, one local Agro processor notified this newspaper that she would be traveling to Barbados and that arrangements for the movement of participants’ products to Barbados were already underway though she was concerned that financing airline tickets could be “a problem for some people.”
Two other Agro Processors who told Stabroek Business that they were desirous of participating in the event told this newspaper that they were unaware of the procedures associated with participation. The Stabroek Business has also learnt that the state-owned Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) which is administered through the Ministry of Agriculture will be represented at the Agro Fest event. The GMC has responsibility for promoting locally produce farm products and agro processed products on markets both inside and outside Guyana. Setting aside the considerable significance of the event to Barbados’ agricultural and agro processing sectors, the importance of this year’s event also reposes in the fact that it is being staged at a time when Barbados is playing a lead road in a wider effort to fashion a regional food security regime to seek to respond to concerns expressed at the level of United Nations-affiliated organizations and others over what is felt to be the diminished food security credentials of the region.
Barbados and Guyana have been ‘tagged’ as the ‘lead’ countries in terms of the delivery of a more food-secure Caribbean with Barbados having specific responsibility for overseeing the creation of a regional food security terminal. While there have been continuous calls in recent months for updates on the pace of progress towards the completion of the Terminal no update has been forthcoming up to this time and it is as yet unclear as to whether a disclosure on the food terminal will be made during the course of the Agro Fest event.
