WITH Guyana looking to rapidly expand its aquaculture sector, a $90 million aquaculture farm and processing facility will be built in Borlam, Corentyne.

The multimillion-dollar facility is expected to ramp up the production of brackish water aquaculture that includes fish and shrimp in the area.

According to a project summary submitted to the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the planned processing facility will be located within the boundaries of the Mensburgh Aquaculture farm’s existing operations and will be away from residential areas, thereby minimising negative impacts that may be caused by the generation of noise, dust and unpleasant odours.

“The farm has been designed to facilitate the brackish water aquaculture of fish and shrimp. The current brackish water aquaculture system cannot be practiced without regular access to sea water,” the project summary stated.

Fish and shrimp products need to be processed in order to maximise their value, lifespan, and marketability. Because processing byproducts must be used in feed manufacturing, Mensburgh Aquaculture will be processing its own fish and shrimp products for cost and hygienic reasons.

In order to prepare and export fish and shrimp products, Mensburgh Aquaculture plans to buy them from other brackish water farms.

A suitable structure will be built to accommodate the processing operation.

As part of the government’s plan to increase fishing and lessen the suffering of nearby fishermen, the fisheries subsector would receive a total of $743.7 million from the 2023 National Budget.

Back in July of this year, an increase in production of brackish-water shrimp of 448,250 kilograms generated some $764 million in revenue.

This reflected a 19 per cent increase in production when compared to what obtained the same period last year.

Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha was quoted in May this year as saying that the production of brackish-water shrimp had increased significantly when compared to the corresponding period in 2022.

“For this year, our farmers were able to produce 182.89 tonnes (182,890 kilograms) of black-water shrimp in the first quarter, earning over $274 million. When we look at the production figures for the first quarter of 2022, we are seeing an increase of almost 50 per cent,” Minister Mustapha said, adding:
“This is in keeping with our goals for the industry, and a testament to the government’s commitment to increasing local production, lowering the food import bill, and increasing both our production and export capacities. We are working towards producing 1.5 million kilograms annually by the year 2025.”

He’d also said back then that with the successes they’d seen so far, the ministry was working to have the programme replicated in other regions.

“So far,” he said, “we’ve assisted farmers with constructing ponds in Region Six, and we’ve started preliminary works in Region Five. We’re also looking at other places like Region Two and so on. In the first few months of the project, we were able to increase production by 203 per cent and those levels have continued to increase over the years.”

In an effort to boost productivity, the Government of Guyana has partnered with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to conduct a study and gather information for the piloting and implementation of a strategy to enhance shrimp production in Guyana and several other Caribbean states.

The ministry also received three manuals that were developed, collaboratively, by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Wildlife Fund – Guianas (WWF-Guianas), and the ministry’s Fisheries Department, one of which will be used to guide brackish-water shrimp production in Guyana.