Dear Editor,
AT some point in time, the opposition should stop trying to blame the government for everything and start utilising some amount of logic and honesty to its dwindling number of supporters.

It is my view that one clear character trait that cloaks many of those who form part of the oppostition is dishonesty. They simply cannot be trusted and the 2020 General and Regional Election saga was a clear demonstration of such.

Their continued attempts to blame our country’s duly elected government, which is headed by His Excellency, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ai, for the increases in food prices is despicable, but then again, we are speaking about a group of people who have demonstrated that they will go to all lengths to remain relevant in the public domain.

Guyana, like many other countries in the Caribbean and globally, has seen a significant increase in the cost of food and products that are imported.
It is no secret that COVID-19 has had a crippling impact on the global economy. Almost two years have passed since the first reported case of the dreaded virus and there seems to be no end in sight. Two of the most noticeable impacts the pandemic has had on the world’s population is restrictions that were placed on travel and cross-border trade.

Due to the nature of the virus and how it is spread, countries were forced to close their borders which, in turn, stopped trade. Although many countries have lifted most of their restrictions, there is still a global backlog of cargo that has affected food prices and food availability.

Freight costs have also moved from US$4,000 per container to US$20,000 per container. Only recently, an article was published in the T&T Guardian which pointed to the fact that the twin island republic could soon see further rises in food prices.

Trinidad is not the only country in the Caribbean that has experienced this. Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname have also seen challenges in this regard.

According to the Caribbean COVID-19 Food Security & Livelihoods Impact Survey that was published in November 2020, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the pandemic had impacted food security so much that 38 per cent of respondents reported skipping meals or eating less than usual, eight per cent reported going one whole day without eating, while 19 per cent of households had no food.

The opposition has and continues to play a dirty game when it comes to the pandemic and ways it has negatively impacted Guyana’s economy and the cost of food prices but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Guyanese are in a far better place now than where they were between March and July 2020. The opposition was too busy fighting to hold on to office that they neglected the people, offering no relief all while spending millions of tax-payers dollars to create an illusion of being a caring government.

I am utterly disgusted, to say the least, that they can now fix their lips to criticise what the government is doing for the people when they themselves did nothing for the people of this country in the midst of the pandemic.

COVID-19 has inevitably shifted the paradigm of trade and Caribbean countries are now left with the most far-reaching global crisis in history.
It has long been the case that between 80 and 90 per cent of all food consumed in the region originates from foreign countries.

I commend our President and Agriculture Minister for the work they have been doing at the level of CARICOM to reduce the regional import bill and barriers to trade, among member states.

The ordinary citizen might not be able to see how important achieving those two things would be to Guyana and the region as a whole but developing sectors like the agriculture sector remain paramount to reducing the regional food import bill. I commend our leaders for taking the bold steps needed to lead CARICOM’s agriculture agenda and, as a people, we must continue to support them in this regard.

Yours sincerely,
Francis Benn