AMIDST financial challenges faced by many countries, Guyana is perhaps more fortunate in that businesses still continue to make local investments here, with the latest being Barama Company Limited (BCL), which commissioned a new plywood and lumber outlet at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud who officially commissioned the outlet yesterday, said that President Bharrat Jagdeo had expressed concern over the high cost of plywood locally and that there were discussions on the matter. The Company was urged to find ways to ensure that consumers are charged a fair price.

With the opening of the outlet, Minister Persaud said that BCL has now represented that the prices will be comparable to or below the export prices, since there will be no intermediary party.

The Minister stated that domestic prices went as high as US $583/m3 in 2008, but Barama had indicated that it was the distributors who were doing the mark up. He noted that this was not entirely true as BCL local prices were higher by more than 10% of their export price.

Meanwhile the Minister said that total production for logs, lumber and roundwood for the first two months of this year was approximately, 44,450 m3 for all producers when compared to 33,088m3 for the same period in 2008.

In the case of Barama, total production to date for logs and lumber is approximately 8,000 m3, when compared to the same period last year which was under 1,000 m3. The company is expected to increase production as

it already has received approval for blocks to commence harvesting for this year.

Employment at BCL’s plywood mill is currently under 400. The Minister expressed the hope that this number will improve considerably over the next 12 months as the company looks to increase its production.

Minister Persaud reminded BCL of its commitment to complete the Veneer Plant at Buck Hall, Region One. The company had indicated that the plant will be completed by September 2009.

The Minister said he had just written to the company indicating that no further deviation from the newly submitted schedule of activities will be entertained.