EVEN as Guyana contends with the effects of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the country has maintained a critical role in supplying food to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states.

Guyana’s role in maintaining regional food security was highlighted by Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder, during his message on World Food Safety Day 2020, which was celebrated under the theme “Food safety, everybody’s business”.

Food safety, a matter of growing importance, encompasses all the practices carried out during production, handling, distribution, preparation and storage of food in order to guarantee its safety for consumption.

According to Holder, this year, the focus is placed on food markets by inspiring action to help prevent, detect and manage food-borne risks, which contribute to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.

“As we celebrate this day during the Coronavirus pandemic, it is important to note that Guyana’s role in the assurance of food security within the region has been recognised, as we provide critical support in ensuring that the food supply for CARICOM states is maintained.

“In addition, we must all be reminded that together we play an important role in ensuring that food is safe and nutritious. This includes governments enforcing regulations and promoting more sustainable solutions, food producers and vendors adopting and applying good hygiene practices like Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) along the food supply chain and consumers making healthier choices and pushing for a safer food supply,” said the agriculture minister.

In Guyana’s progression towards an effective and more sustainable system for ensuring, not only food security, but access to safe food as well as maintenance of a healthy and productive population, the Food Safety Act was passed and assented to by President David Granger, in 2019.

The systems implemented, recently, have positioned Guyana to develop an Integrated Food Safety Authority. Minister Holder said this authority will be grounded in a risk-based regulatory system focused on decreasing food-borne illnesses and non-communicable diseases, in addition to improving confidence for consumers and our trading partners. “I look forward to significant actions in the area of food safety in Guyana in 2020 and the years beyond, and leave you with the WHO’s five keys to safer food: keep clean, separate raw and cooked food, cook food thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures and use safe raw materials and water,” he said.

It was reported, in May, that there is substantial evidence to show that Guyana is “food-secure,” especially at a time when the local economy, like many others, has taken a hit from external and internal shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says people are considered food-secure when they have adequate access, at all times, to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. It also lists “food availability,” “food access” and “food utilisation” as pivotal, central planks of food security.

Guyana, however, continues to stay “above water” in this regard, and, in putting Guyana’s situation in simple terms, Director of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Dr. Odhu Homenauth, said: “Guyanese will not go hungry.”

The country, he said, is food-secure and will be able to “weather the storm,” because there has been no evident drop in the production of fruits and vegetables. NAREI has been monitoring the local production of vegetables and fruits, and, according to Dr. Homenauth, to this end, there has been no decline. For the first quarter of the year (January to March), production was over 179,000 tonnes, compared to 170,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2019. “Apart from COVID-19, we had dry conditions which may have affected crops, so we saw a slight decrease in terms of acreage of some commodities. The decrease in acreage continues to be a trend,” said the director. Despite this prevailing trend, Dr. Homenauth said no sector has been hard hit, but there has been an inevitable decrease in the exportation of some commodities. There has been a reduction in air cargo, especially to Canada and the United States of America because of the restriction on air travel.