Three recent events, the April 30-May 1 UncappeD event at the National Stadium, Providence, the May 19-21 Agri Investment Forum at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre and the May 26-29 Barbados Agro Fest, collectively, did much to focus national and regional attention on the agro-processing sector. The focus had come, too, in the wake of the region’s wider pursuit of post-Covid normalization of the agricultural sector as well as the decision arrived at within CARICOM that a timeline of the next three years will be set for the realization of a 25% reduction in the level of foods imported from outside the region.
It was, of course, reasonable to assume that the linking of the 25 x 2025 food import reduction objective to the expansion of the regional agro processing sector was intended to serve as, among other things, a substantive boost for the sector itself. One might argue, as well, that here was a challenge being thrown out to the agro processors both here in Guyana and in the rest of the region to help lead the way in pursuit of the realization of the 25 x 2025 target. The other intended expectation here would likely have been that Guyana would be expected to lead the way in pursuit of the reduction of extra-regional food imports and that the country’s agro processing sector would have been central to the pursuit of the objective.
What the April 30 – May 1 National Stadium UncappeD event did, among other things, was to enable a ‘post-Covid’ lifting of the restraints that had been placed on the country’s agro-processing sector. The findings of the UncappeD event did two things. First, it pointed to the fact that coastal agro processors, having taken a proverbial beating during the dark and debilitating days of the pandemic had managed, somehow, to ‘hang on’ notwithstanding the fact that some of the weaker enterprises had faltered or had gone out of business altogether. First, it clearly identified the prevailing weaknesses in the sector including technology limitations, limitations in the production volumes of the various agro processing entities and product presentation shortcomings that had to be addressed if the sought-after transformations were to be realized.
The outcomes of the staging of the UncappeD event provided a clear indication that there were sufficient numbers of micro and small businesses in the agro processing sector that were prepared to play their respective parts in the creation of a broader national agro processing infrastructure that could help buttress the country’s and the region’s food security ambitions.
The Stabroek Business has contended in previous editorial columns that the extent of the commitment of the Government of Guyana to the creation of an enabling environment in which agro-processing could make a case for itself as one of main pillars of Guyana’s food security bona fides has always been decidedly insufficient. Contextually, we have continually questioned the extent to which what we believe was the well intentioned creation of a Small Business Bureau has accomplished what had been its presumably intended goals with regard to the growth of the sector and, critically, to job-creation. Secondly, we have pointed to the various minimal outcomes of official attempts to create a robust agro-processing sector arising out of engagements between the Government of Guyana and representatives of the sector.
What the three events alluded to at the beginning of this editorial did was to point to a seemingly desired shift in the focus of agro-processing in the envisaged regional pursuit of food security. Put differently, agro processing, it seems, has now been handed an expanded mandate in the context of what now appears to have become a more urgent regional food security mission. This much was evidenced in the high, region-wide profile afforded both the Guyana and Barbados events alluded to at the beginning of this editorial. It is the matter of effective institution, however, that is very much the key issue here.
There have been a few interesting takeaways from the recent Guyana and Barbados events. First, it appears to have been established that Guyana will continue to lead the regional way in pursuit of the food security goal, though we are yet to see a complete ‘signing on’ among CARICOM member countries to that understanding. Frankly, little of regional note has derived from Guyana’s long-held position of ‘lead territory’ on agriculture for many years. Here, we have argued, that the Ministry of Agriculture has not, over the years, proven to have what it takes to effectively oversee such an ambitious undertaking. That, whatever the protestations of that Ministry, has to change. Secondly, there is the seemingly incurable regional appetite for extra-regional food imports, admittedly largely a function of the need to cater to the tastes of a tourism industry that is of particular strategic importance to the economies of the island states of the Caribbean. That too, has, somehow, to change.
As a region, we have continually failed to invest, both intellectually and materially in the creation of a truly ambitious over-arching agro-processing infrastructure that could significantly reduce the prevailing food security deficit in the region. The entire region must, of course, take responsibility for this though it has to be said that Guyana’s failure, up until now, to provide effective leadership is, arguably, one of the key reasons for the present condition. Arising out of the outcomes of the recent pretty intense regional contemplations on food security, including the role of agro-processing therein, it would appear as though Guyana has been afforded another opportunity to shine.
