AFTER recognising the lucrative future of Guyana’s coconut industry, British businessman Duncan Turnbull and his partners have invested in a 1,000-acre estate in the Pomeroon River.
The company, Pomeroon Trading Inc., is currently rehabilitating the estate which was acquired from the Stoll family. The company is planting 5,000 trees every month and experimenting with innovative inter-cropping techniques.
Turnbull said that he intends to use technology to improve the value chain and transform the local coconut industry.

National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oudho Homenauth, said he was more than happy to welcome the investors to Guyana since it will boost the coconut industry.
He said NAREI has been promoting the local coconut industry and encouraging persons to invest in advanced operations. A lot of promotional activities were done at the Coconut Festival held in October 2016.

“I met with these guys when they just took over the Stoll Estate from the family. The 1,000 acres, which is very significant for the Pomeroon, was operating under-capacity. It used to be flourishing, but with the decline of the industry years ago, it became semi-abandoned,” NAREI’s CEO said.
He indicated that Turnbull and his partners started in the right way. “They are rehabilitating the current estate as well as doing some replanting. It’s an investment we welcome. I believe they will help the estate reach its true potential.”
NAREI will be assisting the company in selecting the planting materials that are more suitable for the Pomeroon area and providing training for its 30 workers.
“Our nursery at Charity will be supplying them with planting materials and partnering with them on pioneering new intercrops that, to date, have not achieved scale in Guyana. The company is looking at crops that will have market value, both locally and internationally,” Dr. Homenauth said.

“Pomeroon Trading Inc. seems to be very progressive and they have the necessary finances to do so and that is why we are going to be partnering with them,” NAREI’s CEO said.
According to the British businessman, the company has secured sizeable investments from Europe to pour into the local industry.
“We’ll be setting up a project to train more women to join the workforce and partnering with local schools on an education project.”

Additionally, Turnbull said that the estate is building a coconut- seedling nursery, which will produce a consistent supply of high-quality seedlings, thereby tackling one of the most severe challenges faced by the local coconut industry.
“Existing estates are often ageing and unproductive — without the right planting materials the industry cannot revitalise,” Turnbull said.
He noted also that the global coconut industry is at a critical junction with a rising demand for the commodity due to an increased awareness of its health benefits and stagnant supply from the established exporters.

President of the Essequibo Chamber of Commerce (ECC), Dileep Singh, had estimated that some 70,000 acres of land in the Pomeroon are not cultivated and there is much to be had from the added value of coconut, if this part of the industry is exploited.

“There are about 70,000 acres of land that are not cultivated. Imagine the amount of money that can be earned here, both in terms of regular coconut cultivation and from the value-added [sic] of coconut… if these things are done, the current G$1 billion generated from the Pomeroon annually will shoot up to anywhere around G$15 billion annually in a short space of time,” the chamber president told the Guyana Chronicle.