Even as news broke last week that more than seventy (70) local farmers and Agro Processors will be participating in this year’s February 21-23 Barbados Agro Fest event, local Agro Processors who have indicated to the Stabroek Business that they are desirous participating in the event are requesting that the organizers of the event make public such criteria and conditions as exist for their participation therein.
Concerns over opportunities to benefit from the exposure which the event provides have arisen in previous years and have been expressed to the Stabroek Business. Those concerns are linked to allegations that participation in the event are allied to ‘connections’ that clear a pathway that includes official support that prioritorise selection as well as various forms of logistical and, allegedly, financial support to participate in the Barbados event.
Those local Agro Processors with whom this newspaper has spoken with have said that previously information that might have positioned them to benefit from government’s financial and other forms of support for their participation therein had not been made available to them in a timely manner, a circumstance which, they believe, had negatively affected their ability to participate in the event. No official comment on these concerns is usually forthcoming from the organizers of the event.
The Barbados Agro Fest event is considered to be one of the favoured gateways in the region through which to enable exposure of products to the wider Caribbean and beyond given the marketing opportunities afforded by frequent of visitor arrivals in the country from Europe and North America and the routine business connections between Barbados and those countries. For Guyanese Agro Processors the event provides a rare window of opportunity to market their products outside of Guyana, the event offering opportunities not just to interface with local buyers in the CARICOM member country. In previous years issues have arisen and brought to the attention of the Stabroek Business regarding alleged prejudiced access to support facilities for would-be Guyanese participants in the event. These have included allegations of selective access to state funding to help defray the costs associated with expenses that include accommodation in Barbados. Other forms of in-country support aimed at maximizing local opportunities to secure markets for their products are also reportedly ‘set up’ for ‘favoured’ Guyanese participants.
Just over a week ago, the Stabroek Business met with three Agro Processors who indicated that they were desirous of participating in this year’s Agro Fest event and requesting that the state agency responsible for coordinating local participation in the event place detailed information on matters pertaining to participation in the event in both the state and privately-owned media and that those notices contain details of the conditions and criteria for benefitting from state support for their participation.
Last year the Stabroek Business received similar inquiries regarding participation in the Agro Fest event. Those inquiries had also been attended by similar concerns regarding criteria for participation in the event and whether there would be opportunities for would-be participants to benefit from state support. At that time claims were being made that some would-be participants in the event were benefitting from access to information and other forms of support that would enhance their chances of participation in the Agro Fest event.
Local interest in the Barbados Agro Fest event has increased significantly as Guyanese continue to demonstrate greater interest in the sector and more particularly in the opportunities that might arise out of the Agro Fest event to secure regional and extra-regional markets for their products. While the available evidence reflected in participation in locally staged product promotion events point to steady growth in the local agro-processing sector, challenges associated with accessing external markets including weaknesses in the local product promotion system have meant that the country’s Agro Processing sector has been unable, up to this time, to take full advantage of the international market.
With global trends pointing increasingly to a technology-driven approach to Agro Processing Guyana has, up to this time, been unable to create a technology-driven regime that targets the significant advancement of the sector. Promises made by the Ministry of Agriculture to enhance the sector through investment in manufacturing facilities in regions across the country have, up to this time, not become transformed into evidence of comparable growth in the sector.