–under auspices of Agriculture Ministry & IICA

THE Agriculture Ministry, in collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the New Guyana Shop, hosted yet another agro-processing and marketing initiative last Friday at New Guyana Shop, conveniently located at the corner of Robb and Alexander streets, in the hub of the city’s commerce.

This initiative, highlighting the very versatile ‘pineapple’, showcased a wide variety of value-added products for export and local consumption.
The promotion brought together several producers, who were able to share with consumers valuable insights into the product: its cultivation culture, primary uses, information on growing pineapples in Guyana, post-harvesting and marketing preparation, pests and diseases of pineapples in Guyana, as well as information on the amazing benefits of consuming pineapples.
Additionally, there was a range of attractively displayed valuable-added products for which there is lucrative marketing potential in the Caribbean. Products showcased included canned and bottled pineapple juices, jams, jellies and yogurt manufactured by both Tandy’s and Sterling Products.
The Carnegie School of Home Economics also introduced five exciting versions of pineapple products, namely: pineapple cheese; spicy pineapple sauce; pine tart filling; fruit-in-syrup, and pineapple jam. Moreover, a mouth-watering variety of ready-to-eat pineapple-based cocktails was prepared and showcased by students of that institution, including pineapple chicken salad, pineapple pudding, and pineapple crumble.
Other producers who were present at the occasion included the Health Food Store on Middle Street, Georgetown and the Amazon Caribbean Guyana Inc.
Agriculture Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and IICA’s Representative Mr.Wilmot Garnett also visited the exhibition and spoke with journalists. Dr. Ramsammy outlined that this third exhibition for the quarter was intended to be a monthly feature hosted at the Guyana Shop and aimed at promoting our local products.
He said: “Guyana’s agriculture is more than rice and sugar. Guyana’s agriculture is also about growing foods such as pineapples, corn, pak choy, bora, to feed our people.” He said that one of the things Guyana wants to do with her agriculture is diversify, so that we can provide for people, not only our food security, but nutrition security – healthy foods to help feed the Caribbean, thereby achieving our destiny, which is to become the ‘bread basket of the Caribbean’.
And while fulfilling our mandate of providing fresh food, he said, there’s a growing emphasis on producing value-added through our agro-processing sector. “So what we do at this site every month is to highlight the fact that we grow high-quality, nutritious fruits and vegetables. We also show people that we can make a diversity of products from these fruits and vegetables in our kitchen, and we provide the recipe for those.”
Dr. Ramsammy, however, said that work is being done to improve on the labelling and packaging in some cases. “This is something we are working on, and the reason for coming here once a month is not just to show-off the different products, but to address these concerns. We are helping our agro-processors in determining the nutritional content, but our product itself is as good as anything else you will get anywhere,” he said.
Licences
Dr. Ramsammy said the authorities are ensuring the agro-processors produce in facilities that are licensed and meet FDA standards, hence the practice of bottom-house processing is being discouraged.
He warned that unlicensed entities will not be allowed to sell their products to the Guyana Shop.
“So there are dual functions for holding the exhibitions: to show people that we produce a wide variety, and to promote our produce while showing our fellow Guyanese how our quality is improving over time. So I think this is a time for us to celebrate. We are expanding and modernizing the agro-processing initiative,” Dr Ramsammy concluded.
ICCA’s Representative, Mr. Wilmot Garnett, said IICA remains committed to the Ministry of Agriculture and its partners in development, to continue modernization of the agriculture sector in Guyana. “Over the years, we have been focusing on value-added products because we need to maximize our profit for farmers. Next year, we will also be concentrating on our cost-of-production exercise, and we will be working not only at the University level, but at the ground level as well. We will work with the farmers, being very clear and letting them know the details that they can consider so as to make a profit,” he said.
And commenting on sanitary conditions, Garnett said that, in agriculture, IICA works with what is referred to as ‘Agriculture Health and Food Safety’ – all the aspects alluded to by Minister Ramsammy, to get our products ‘export ready.’
“This also applies for the quality at home. It must also be in compliance with what we have for the standards internationally. So IICA remains committed,” he said.
IICA is also working with groups, he said, and undertakes a lot of training in the communities, working at the farm levels.

(By Shirley Thomas)