By Ariana Gordon

THE Guyana Swine Producers Co-operative Society on Wednesday received 20 out of 100 pigs purchased in Suriname for the purpose of improving the breeding stock here.Chairman of the co-operative society, Eric Anderson told Guyana Chronicle that the purchase of the pigs is in keeping with an arrangement between the Government of Guyana and the society.
He explained that the society submitted a pig rearing project proposal to the Ministry of Communities last October and was able to acquire $20M.
“In this project we are acquiring quality breeding stock… we submitted in October 2015 our project and it was accepted. They gave us $20M towards the acquisition of new breeding animals,” Anderson told Guyana Chronicle.
The pigs were imported from Suriname after a visit by a number of the society’s members to that country.
“We visited the pig farm there that rears ‘TOPIGS 40’ and Tempo boar. We decided that given the climatic conditions we would import pigs from Suriname.”

GENETICS
The genetics of the pigs were developed in Holland and France, Anderson noted.
“The characteristic of the TOPIGS 40 is that they give you fairly large litter, excellent growth rate and conversion,” Anderson added.
As such, 90 sows and 10 boars have been purchased from Suriname. But even as the society has started to receive the pigs from Suriname, Anderson said it is important that cattle farmers are trained in animal rearing and husbandry.
Some 32 members of the society are to benefit from the pigs purchased.
TRAINING
“Ongoing at the moment is a training programme on pig management and husbandry. The training is taking place on farm at the moment,” he said.
It is being dome in collaboration with the Guyana Livestock Development Association (GLDA), the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The training started in Region 3 last Wednesday and will run for 18 months, the entire life of the project. The training is open to all pig farmers, including the 32 beneficiaries of the project. Anderson noted that 15 additional persons will be assisted with the construction and repair of pens, along with the renovation of fences.

ACCESSING MARKETS
Anderson told Guyana Chronicle that the pig farmers are challenged because they are not in a position to export fresh pork due to the lack of an abattoir that has ASDU standard. According to him, an abattoir that has ASDU standard is one that has met the international requirement for storing safe, quality meat.
“To sell quality fresh pork out of Guyana, you have to ensure you have an abattoir of ASDU standard; at the moment we don’t have. But in the pipeline through the Ministry of Agriculture, some funding has been earmarked for the construction of an abattoir of ASDU standard and that would immediately allow us to access markets in Suriname, in Jamaica and in Trinidad.”
He said there have been many inquiries from regional countries as the demand for fresh and good quality pork rises.
“They have been inquiring of us whether we can supply on a monthly basis pork to those countries,” he told the Guyana Chronicle, but noted that “we can’t export any meat because of the standard of the abattoir here. Be it beef or pork or mutton, we can’t do that.”
He said a location for the new abattoir has been proposed and once approved; it will be housed at Onverwagt, Region 5.
“The immediate effect of these 100 pigs (being imported from Suriname) is that you would see by mid-September we start to reproduce some quality pigs in the country. By 2017, February, we will have quality fresh port. It is important to understand that restaurants have been demanding quality pork and in 2016, 64,000 tons of fresh pork was imported,” Anderson added.
The Chairman noted that if Guyana wants to be competitive regionally, production has to go up. He said too that Guyana has a small market for pork and that market continues to be affected by limited supply.