–as local company engages ‘Agri’ Minister

A LOCAL coconut production company, Pomeroon Trading Inc., has unveiled its plan to construct a US$8 million (G$1.7 billion) processing facility in Guyana.
The company’s full plan was relayed by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Duncan Turnbull, to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, on Thursday.
According to a statement from the Agriculture Ministry, the company cultivates close to 35,000 seed nuts on about to 400 acres of land.
Turnbull said Pomeroon Trading Inc., has always worked to ensure that farmers are the beneficiaries of the company’s expansion over the years.
The role of farmers in the company’s operations is to supply nuts in quantities that will satisfy the demand.
“We started planting about three years ago. Right now, we are doing a seedling nursery. We always start with a nursery because we want to do the seedlings ourselves. We want to control the quality of the seed nuts and the health of the palms, so we are very selective with the seedlings.
“We’ve been able to establish relationships with farmers from the Pomeroon and we have a team of agronomists who go around hand-selecting the seed nuts from trees that are the right age and have all the visible and desired characteristics required,” Turnbull said.

He further explained that the company’s ultimate goal is to acquire more lands to expand their operations, as well as establish a processing facility.
“Once we have this facility set up, we would not only take produce from our farms, but from other farmers in the region. So far, we’ve invested approximately US$3 million since we started.
“In order to expand our cultivation and construct the processing facility, we would like to invest another US$8 million. We are currently engaging additional investors to buy into the project. We’re working very closely with the United States Government and USAID. If we can get those sums within the next six months, we would start straight away,” Turnbull related.
The CEO also said that the company is currently exploring a joint venture with Trinidad and Tobago to export coconut water. In the immediate term, the company’s aim is to become U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified, to be able to export their products to the United States.
Jared Kissoon, the company’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), said the company, in keeping with its vision for expansion, intends to explore retail and export opportunities. The local market, he said, would be a good learning curve in terms of setting up long-term operations for export.

The local coconut industry currently has about 1,800 farmers who collectively cultivate some 24,000 acres of coconut in Regions One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10.
Guyana, on average, produces 92 million nuts annually, much of which is exported for coconut copra and water, mainly to Barbados, Trinidad and The Dominican Republic.
Pomeroon Trading Inc. currently cultivates the three-year dwarf variety, primarily for the production of coconut water. They are also involved in inter-cropping, with crops like passionfruit, bananas, turmeric, and ginger under cultivation.
Minister Mustapha complimented the team for their investment so far. He told the team that a host of new opportunities will soon be made available in the agriculture sector.
“Very soon a number of new opportunities will be made available for local farmers as we are currently working to address barriers to trade in the Caribbean. After His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali, would’ve submitted a paper to CARICOM on advancing the agriculture agenda, a task force was set up that Guyana is chairing. So, we are working aggressively to tap into the CARICOM market, which is a very large and lucrative market,” Minister Mustapha said.

He also disclosed that although COVID-19 has affected the entire world, Guyana’s agriculture sector has recorded some amount of growth for the first quarter of the year.
He noted that with Guyana once again taking up its place in CARICOM as the lead on agriculture, the government has been aggressively promoting and supporting investment and development of the agriculture sector.
In addition to rice and sugar production, focus is now being placed on the cultivation of non-traditional and high-earning commodities. One such industry is the coconut industry. Since being elected to office, the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has moved to develop the sector by ensuring proper planting materials are easily accessible to farmers across the country.
Last year, as part of the Hope Coconut Industries Limited’s (HCIL) emergency budgetary allocation, two new coconut nurseries were established, one at Kairuni on the Linden Soesdyke Highway and the other in Charity, Region Two. Furthermore, the ministry has announced plans to establish six additional nurseries across the country during this year.