-Minister Mustapha says it suffered years of neglect

OPERATIONS at the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s cold-storage facility at Mora-Parika will soon be resumed, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said on Tuesday

The minister made this disclosure during a visit to the facility where he also disclosed that efforts are being made to restore the corporation’s plantain chip factory.

He explained that the facility which was established under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) prior to 2015 has been dormant for some time.

“This facility was built when we were in government prior to 2015. It was very active where farmers had lots of benefits from this facility, and I don’t know what took place over the last five years,” he said.

The minister noted that the building has not been utilised to its full potential over the years and many of the equipment today are not functioning as they should. However, he has instructed the GMC’s Board of Directors and General Manager Teshawna Lall to formulate a strategy to restore the facility.

“It’s a beautiful building, but it is underutilized, so I have asked her to come up with some plans on how we can utilise this private-public partnership. We will put out an advertisement for expressions of interest and also we will be meeting with farmers to sensitise and [encourage] them to start using back this facility so we can provide services,” he added.

Additionally, he questioned underutilisation of the facility despite the presence of necessary equipment.

“There are some very good equipment in there, equipment where you can do for example plantain value-added product and that business is a very lucrative business and I don’t know why it failed, but I am here and I want to assure members of the public and farmers that we will ensure that this facility is utilised to its full potential,” he said.

He added that the ministry will be reaching out to potential investors to restore and potentially expand the plantain chip factory at the Parika facility for the farmers in the region.

“Also, with the plantain chip factory we will see if we can have an investor to invest there and we will provide the necessary framework,” he said

The minister stated that he is hoping to see some results as it relates to the facility before the first quarter of 2021.

Meanwhile, Lall stated that she and her team will commence work on the facility as soon as the 2021 budget is passed.

She noted that emphasis will also be placed on plantain production at the facility to provide additionally income for farmers and women in the community.

“The plantain chip factory had commenced [operations] in February of last year and it stopped in August and 80% of the production was bad. They were skipping a couple of steps in the manufacturing process and basically it become rancid after two months and we had to pull them off of the shelves,” she explained.