The Ministry of Agriculture has given the go-ahead for a team of inspectors from its counterpart in Trinidad & Tobago to review the status of the chicken export facility here.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud told Stabroek News last evening that he is certain the facilities at Didco are ready to be certified for export, since a team had been set up at the level of the ministry and was working with the company in this regard. He stated that he had given the green light to the Trinidadian Agriculture Ministry at the end of December.
A team, which visited Guyana two years ago from Trinidad had made certain recommendations after noting that some of the necessary systems were not in place. Trinidad’s Minister of Agriculture Jarette Narine told the Trinidad Express on Sunday: “The surveillance unit, they did not have any. Inspectors were not inspecting on time and so on. Those things have been rectified as far as the Guyanese government is concerned.”
In giving assurances that Guyana would be given the go-ahead to export its chicken produce Persaud mentioned that the deal to export chicken came through a bilateral agreement between Didco and its business partner in Trinidad. He said the ministries in both countries were acting as trade facilitators. The minister also added that Didco is not the only export facility in Guyana but was simply one of the producers that had worked out a business arrangement with importers in T&T.
He also indicated the move was strategic in the sense that the ministry was waiting for the end of the Christmas period before giving the go ahead for the inspection team.
“The team would also be looking at the state of readiness of Guyana’s potential beef export facilities as well,” Persaud said.
The Express story which appeared yesterday said Trinidadians expecting to buy cheaper chicken from Guyana this month will have to wait until some time in February to do so. It said the chicken was expected to begin arriving in Trinidad before the end of January.
The Trinidadian Cabinet, in December, had approved the removal of the 40 per cent import surcharge on poultry products and government had identified Guyana as a candidate for meat importation in the first instance, with Belize and Argentina to follow next.
Asked if the Agriculture Ministry inspectors were ready to leave for Guyana, Narine said the team was already selected but was waiting on a response from Persaud. The T&T minister said it was a matter of protocol to wait on certain information from the Agriculture Ministry here.
Narine was certain that once the new inspection team certified that Didco had met the necessary sanitary and other requirements, Guyanese chicken will be allowed into the Trinidad and Tobago market. He added that those approvals are vital in ensuring that all the chicken exported to Trinidad from Guyana is disease free.
