Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest), Owen Verwey says a number of proposals have been received for agro-processing and he highlighted the importance of this sector for Guyana’s economic growth.
“Agro-processing is very critical in terms of future development of this economy. We are an agriculture-based or commodity-based economy. We have very large land mass, arable land too”, he said
Verwey told the Government Information Agency that a number of investors, including one significant foreign investor, have tendered applications and expressions of interest for investments in agro-processing.
“We have seen applications in agro-processing from the aquaculture area right down to the traditional cash crops that Guyana has been producing; peppers, the cabbages, the leafy vegetables and those kind of areas,” the CEO said.
Verwey, who was appointed in January this year, said that prospective investors have been doing studies towards moving forward with proposed investments. “…there are investors interested in the market. They are actually either doing pre-feasibility, feasibility or they are doing actual business case development before they move forward in that area.”
The agro-processing sector is also expected to grow with collaborative efforts with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry to prepare agro-processing investors for the market.
Verwey told GINA, “The Caribbean Develop-ment Bank together with the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is completing a value-added, competitiveness study on the value-added industry, with specific focus on the agro-processing sector, and that will provide significant information for us, the industry and finances going forward.”
