By Elvin Carl Croker
SCORES of early morning shoppers flocked the D’Urban Park tarmac in Georgetown as early as 6:00am Saturday to cash in on agricultural and other products being made available at the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC) sixth Farmers Market.
Public Relations Officer of the GMC, Shavon Nedd, in an invited comment, related that the exercise was aimed at encouraging persons to support local products, noting that some of the products are better than some of the imported ones.
“Today, we had our second Christmas market day and the sixth farmers’ and agro processors’ Market Day and based on the response from exhibitors, it was very good because persons had queued up long before 6:00pm to purchase items,” Nedd said.
The event drew over 70 farmers, agro processors and other exhibitors of locally-made items, she said.

“Producers have been upping their game by producing quality items [with] improved packaging [and] because of this the response has been overwhelming, the eggs didn’t even get to land properly; as soon as they came they were sold out,” the PRO said.
She explained that a much sought-after group is the Region Six farmers’ group which has become very popular after taking part in all the market days held by the GMC.
Lloyd Millington, one of the exhibitors who was selling meat, said he belongs to a group called the ‘Mary Friends’ Co-op Society in Friendship, E.B.D. He said his group sold a variety of meat products which included about 600 pounds of beef, 1,000 pounds’ pork and 100 trays of eggs, all of which, he said, finished “in a jiffy.”

“Today, we had a lot of challenges but we came through good in the end. I was about an hour late and persons were lined up waiting on us because they know the quality of the products from the previous events,” he explained.
Also, Andrea Seechun, a cash-crop farmer who hails from Adventure Village, said all of her produce was also sold out in a short space of time. She said she had joined with two other farmers and brought out 200 watermelons, a variety of fresh organic mixed seasoning and a large quantity of assorted vegetables. The watermelons, she said, were being sold for between $100 and $800 each.

“This is by far the biggest Farmers’ Market, everything was sold out, and it was a very successful venture,” the happy farmer said.
The GMC provided accommodation for all the exhibitors free of cost.