With FAO support…
AGRICULTURE Minister Robert Persaud is confident that, with the demand for coconuts and coconut products increasing approximately 300 per cent more last year, good days are ahead for the industry.

Consequently, he announced that his ministry intends to spend close to $400M on the establishment of a coconut plant and make it available to the Private Sector, as well, at Hope Estate.

He made the announcement while expressing his optimism about the business Wednesday, at a seminar convened by the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), in association with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), under the theme ‘Best Practices for Harvesting, Handling and Processing of Coconut Water.’

The workshop, conducted in the auditorium of Guyana School of Agriculture, Mon Repos, also on East Coast Demerara, was intended to engage participants through lectures and practical exercises.

Mr. Persaud said there is fierce competition at present for coconuts, as compared to how the commodity was viewed in recent years when it developed a lack of demand.

In comparison to the time when people were willing to trade their coconuts for other supplies, at a minimal price, the Minister observed that, from the year 2008, many foreigners came to Guyana to source coconut water and it gained its global recognition.

Persaud recalled that the local population began to complain that most of the coconuts produced here were being exported and it caused the Ministry to seek ways of addressing the demand supply.

He said the huge volume being exported has been a concern to him, because this country could suffer economically, utilising only about 30 per cent of the product.

Consequently, Persaud said an effort was made to gather all the stakeholders together, including the Private Sector, as the Ministry is also looking at ways of supporting those who want to become involved in value-added activities.

Revitalising
He appealed to estate owners to place emphasis on revitalising their cultivations, so that they can supply the nuts and, eventually, link with the CARICOM region.

Persaud said the $800M programme that was announced by President Bharrat Jagdeo recently, to include providing meals to children, envisages the inclusion of ingredients produced locally, instead of imported junk.

FAO Specialist, Mr. Norbert Ambagan, said he has found that coconut farming areas are located mainly on East Coast Demerara and West Berbice but he also visited the Women’s Group in Pomeroon.

The major players in the coconut business are farmers, traders, market owners, street vendors and inter-processors. He said, alongside these stakeholders, are the Agriculture Ministry and the FAO.

Director of NARI, Dr Oudho Homenauth, said the activity embarked upon in Guyana, to expand the coconut industry, complements the regional project, as the FAO has established similar programmes in CARICOM.

He said the project will support a secured market for producers and also facilitate sustainability.

Homenauth said one of the outcomes of Ambagan’s visit is the designing of a prototype factory for processing coconut water, which is a nutritious thirst quencher that contains much therapeutic properties.

He described it as a tonic which wards off fatigue almost instantly and has no cholesterol.

However, Homenauth cautioned that, once exposed to air, coconut water will begin to ferment and lose its characteristics.

He said it should be extracted within 24 hours of harvesting and, because quality of the product depends on how the nuts are harvested, the workshop was intended to look at value addition and expansion of the sector.

Meanwhile, Mr. Elton Patram, from Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) told the Guyana Chronicle that the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) is developing two benchmarks, a code of practice for packaged natural coconut water and specifications for it.
He said they will become regional and apply to all CARICOM member States.