– Exporters to get 15% discount on goods for 2011
GUYANA is ideally poised to once again be considered the bread basket of the Caribbean, and recognizing this, Caribbean Airlines
intends to step up its service to local exporters. Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud on Wednesday met with several stakeholders from the Guyana Marketing Corporation, Guyana Trade and Investment Support Project, Guyana Non-Traditional Exporters Association, Guyana Revenue Authority, Cheddi Jagan
International Airport, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), several local exporters and representatives from the airlines in the
ministry’s boardroom.
The meeting was geared towards resolving difficulties exporters have been experiencing with the service provided by the
various stakeholders and the timely export of their goods to the United States of America and other countries by the airline.
Minister Persaud told the airline delegation that Government had sought  further cooperation with them on a previous occasion so as
to establish a direct cargo service into New York where the bulk of the market is, but that never materialized. He added that this
offer is still on the table as the demand for local produce in the diaspora is still there.
“We are always willing to work with our partners, and both the ministry and the GMC are just here as facilitator, it is
between yourselves and the exporters. “Our role is just to bring the two sides together and to allow you to be exposed to those who
may have made representation to us or are in the business and for them to sound you out on their concerns,” Minister Persaud told the
airline executives.
He noted that government has been very concerned about the possible impact these irritants can have on the growth in
export.
Due in no small part to what some exporters perceive as the unfair disadvantage at which they are operating, as well as
the cost and time factors as it relates to exporting their produce via air, air cargo over the past few years has declined and sea
transport has increased by 20 per cent.
The minister stated that some other problems exporters have been having with air cargo transport is the delay in time,
handling of their produce and space.
“Guyanese exporters felt that they were being treated as second class to exporters from say, Trinidad and Tobago, and
that they were given limited cargo space in terms of getting their goods to the market… and then it comes back generally to
consistent service,” Minister Persaud pointed out.
He added that once producers are able to engage markets then reliability becomes an important aspect.
Government, in the 2011 budget, increased the allocation for its agricultural diversification programme, which is
primarily geared towards agriculture export, to $1.5 billion in an effort to enhance the country’s export market.
Minister Persaud said that another concern is security, which has seen the ministry implementing a system of direct
information sharing with CANU so as to dissuade persons from using agricultural produce to export narcotics.
“We want the trade to be viable, we also want it to be healthy and to be free of any of those irritants,” Minister
Persaud said.
He noted that government’s strategic plan in terms of agricultural is geared towards export, adding that the largest
segment of the productive sector that saw investments last year was in agriculture.  Government is also committed to providing
resources to the sector, and is also looking towards putting arrangements in place for the smooth handling of agriculture produce for
export.
“I want Caribbean Airlines and others who are involved in this particular business to see Guyana as a growing market, a
market to be taken seriously but also a market in which we demand fair treatment and we demand respect and we want to ensure that
your customers, who are our exporters, are also given as much support as they need,” the Minister stated.
Caribbean Airlines airport manager with responsibility for South America, Carl Stuart said that the company wants to
revisit the plan they had with the Government of Guyana seven years ago, so as to be able to bring larger aircraft into Guyana to
deal with the issue of uplifting cargo in a timely manner.
He noted that the meeting was an effort to garner information from exporters on what and when they need to ship and
trying to come up with a road map so that over the next 60 days to a year they can increase frequency into Guyana, in off scheduled
times as well as in peak times so that they can ship out all perishables needed to be exported to the Caribbean and other
destinations.
Cargo Sales Executive with Caribbean Airlines, Ken Joseph stated that the company is committed to enhancing cooperation
between the airline and exporters.
“We are thinking about doing a new venture into Guyana. We want to increase our cargo capacity, we want to increase
volumes of what we are moving out of Guyana into Port of Spain, into Barbados, into Antigua, into Kingston, into Canada and New York
and that volume is going to come from you guys and all the meeting is about is to get your support for that venture,” he said.
Meanwhile, Stuart, in a show of good faith and of the company’s commitment to working with local exporters to resolve any
and all issues in an effort to enhance business, offered the exporters an extension on the initially offered 90 day period of 15 per
cent discount, to the entire year.
Some of the issues raised at the stakeholders’ meeting concerned that of the handling of perishable produce, packaging,
long delays between security checks and the long in-transit time.
Addressing some of the issues, Stuart pointed out that the airline company is ready to work with the exporters and the
relevant stakeholders in finding solutions where ever they can.
Minister Persaud also pointed out that the solution to many of the issues exporters are experiencing lies in there being
an export facility at the CJIA, adding that some preliminary works has already been done in identifying a location for such a
facility. (GINA)