Egyptian company scoping opportunities in Guyana’s shrimp industry
Evergreen Egypt United, a leading company in the field of fish farming and marine fisheries, is seeking to set up operations in Guyana.
According to a social media statement by the Agriculture Ministry, the company is hoping to establish fish and shrimp hatcheries, a fish and shrimp-feeding plant and production factory, as well as a research and development laboratory.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha on Tuesday met with a team of investors from the Egyptian company to discuss advancing this project. During this meeting, Mustapha said Guyana is both embarking on cage culture as well as increasing the production of brackish water shrimp, adding that groundwork to begin rearing brackish water shrimp in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) has already begun.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha meeting with investors from Evergreen Egypt United
Meanwhile, brackish water shrimp production in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) has rapidly increased since its launch in July 2021.
In April, Minister Mustapha relayed an increase in production from 10,000 kilogrammes to 90,000 kilogrammes, with eventual plans to reach the target of 120,000 kilogrammes.
The Agriculture Ministry is also reportedly increasing cage culture this year to about 50-75 cages around the country, and improving facilities of some 75 landing sites.
The Government has been placing additional focus on the country’s aquaculture industry over the past year.
As such, Guyana is one of 12 countries participating in the five-year FISH4ACP program, conceptualized by the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), aiming to support the development of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
In continued commitment to this goal, FAO and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in April collaborated with the Agriculture Ministry to develop three manuals to aid fisherfolk and other necessary stakeholders in their production methods.
The manuals are the WWF-produced Guyana Marine Industry Management Plan (2022-2027), the FAO-led Seabob Management Plan (2022-2027), and the Agriculture Ministry’s new Brackish Water Shrimp Production Manual.
