For reasons that are altogether unclear to this newspaper, the Government has – as far as we are aware – neglected/declined to make an official announcement regarding participation by local Agro Processors in this year’s Barbados Agro Fest which is being staged from?? Indeed, information reaching this newspaper on local Agro Processors’ in the event came from a Barbados media report and it was only after we learnt of this disclosure that we ventured – quoting the Barbados media source, of course, – that there was going to be some measure of Guyana participation in the event.
The Annual Barbados Agro Fest which the country generously shares with others’ in the region is an event which local Agro Processors have been keen to participate in. The reason that they usually give for wanting to participate in the event is that touristy Barbados usually offers an important marketing opportunity for Agro products made in Guyana. In parts of the region and further afield Agro Proces-sors have been able to pries open relatively modest but useful markets for their goods. Guyana, largely because of its advantageous access to raw materials associated with Agro-manufacturing, to say nothing about the skills that have been honed over a number of years, is credited with offering the widest range of Agro processed goods anywhere in the region. Ambitious Guyanese Agro processors have been able to establish modest extra-regional ‘bridgehead’ markets primarily in parts of the United States.
Here in Guyana, the process of ‘graduating’ from products manufactured in domestic kitchens is often gradual though, these days, a combination of private sector undertakings and state-funded Agro Processing facilities have been developed in various parts of the country. However, the growth and development of these facilities have had to be attended by efforts to access export markets given the fact that the domestic market is a modest one. Indeed, local keenness to participate in the Barbados Agro Fest is linked largely to the fact that our sister CARICOM country possesses long-entrenched tourism-driven links with Europe and North America. Accordingly, the island, apart from its own market, is regarded as a ‘bridgehead’ from which to ‘strike out’ for other bigger markets.
The Stabroek Business has not, up until now, seen the customary public announcements regarding Guyana’s participation in this year’s Agro Fest. Although we understand that arrangements for local participation therein are being handled by the Guyana Office for Invest-ment (GOINVEST), we have thrice been unable to secure access to the ‘desk’ that is coordinating arrangements for Guy-ana’s participation in the event. Having been integrally involved in media reporting on Guyana’s participation in the Barbados Agro Fest previously, we are aware of (some of) the procedures associated with the planning and execution of the various assignments associated with local participation. Indeed, and setting aside our routine report-age, we have engaged with the organizers regarding information relating to the movement of both goods and Agro Processors to Barbados. At the end of the event, we have also reported on the overall experience of Guyanese participants in the event.
With the launch of the three-day 2024 Barbados Agro Fest exactly one week away, we have still seen nothing in the state media about Guyana’s participation in the event. We are, however, in receipt of what one might call ‘grapevine’ information regarding aspects of what we are told are arrangements being made by the Government of Guyana to have the products of participants sent to Barbados by air. One of the two persons who contacted us on participation in the event made a specific inquiry as to whether we were in a position to provide information on the issue of assistance with meeting the cost of air fares and accommodation in Barbados. We are not. We believe, that at this juncture, it is for the competent state agency to quickly release pertinent information on matters pertaining to Guyana’s participation in the 2024 Barbados Agro Fest event.
