THE Aranaputa Processors Friendly Society Group is optimistic that recent commitments made by private and public officials will be beneficial to the peanut-butter factory’s fortunes in the future.
At the same time, the Region Nine administration is expected to honour a debt in which it owes the factory approximately $1M through the national school feeding programme. The Guyana Chronicle reported last month that the agro-processing facility was in “survival mode” and that several factors including a reduction in demand from the group’s main supporter, the Ministry of Education, has seen the agro-processing group grapple to remain afloat.
While officials at the Education Ministry could not be reached, Sonia Sears of the factory told the Guyana Chronicle this week that it is the Region Nine administration which is indebted to the factory and not the Education Ministry. Sears said that she received numerous calls following the publication of an article last month in the Guyana Chronicle on the state of the factory and according to her, a team of government officials subsequently visited the area this week.
She said that the team included a senior official of the Education Ministry who informed her that it is the Region Nine administration which is tasked with making payments to the factory through its local budget for the school feeding programme. She said that Region Nine’s chairman , Bryan Allicock who was a part of the visiting team , informed the agro-processing group that when he returned to the town of Lethem , the region’s administrative capital , moves will be made to clear the debts. The factory is owed in excess of $983,000 through the school feeding programme. The sum was dated back to September 2016 and was expected to increase at the end of the month of April. The factory supplies peanut butter as well as snacks in the form of cassava bread which is uniquely packaged and provided to schools in the area.
This publication understands that several private individuals whose businesses are related to agro-processing have also contacted the factory recently and they are expected to endorse the entity’s products. “If that happens, it would be a surplus for us,” Sears said, noting that a businessman was expected to test the factory’s peanut butter on the local market as part of his plans to support locally produced goods.
The New Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) has been a partner of the peanut butter factory as well as the Women Agro-Processors Development Network (WADN) . The peanut butter is usually sold at the New GMC shop on Robb Street near the Bourda Market. The WADN provides network support as well as advocate products and services of its partners.
Last month, the group said it was seeking the intervention of the government or any organisation which can provide a grant in order for the agro-processing group to remain in business.
Residents of the village told the Guyana Chronicle that the factory was the main image of Aranaputa . They noted that most farmers in the area sold their peanuts to the factory and as such its closure would spell bad news for the farmers.
Government has been working to improve village economics through agro-processing ventures. On the occasion of World Food Day in 2015, President David Granger reaffirmed his government’s commitment to promoting value addition and agro-processing as part of enhancing the lives of Guyanese.
“Our Government will seek to move increasingly into value-added food production; we will seek greater investment in agro-processing and we will take steps to stimulate cottage industries; what we call bottom house industries, thereby creating jobs, providing reliable sources of income particularly for women and young people coming out of school,” the President said at the time.