Govt-supported project: Agri Minister urges Corentyne shrimp farmers to lower prices

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has called on Corentyne brackish water shrimp farmers to lower the price they are selling the crustacean.
The Minister who met with the farmers on Saturday at the Albion Community Centre pointed out that the Government has invested in the project and so the cost cannot be so exuberant.
“The Government is using tax payer’s money to help you all, so if you all are producing on a large scale now you have to reduce the price,” Mustapha told them.
Prior to the initiative by the Government to boost the production of brackish water shrimp production stood at 9,000 kilograms annually and it moved up from that figure in 2021, to 548,900 kilograms in 2022 and 815,496 kilograms in 2023.
Back in 2021, the blackish water shrimp was being sold by the farmer at $20,000 per bucket. The price has escalated to $35,000 per bucket.
In 2021, the Government initiated a project to increase inland shrimp production. Between January and November 2023, Guyana produced 815,496 kilograms of shrimp, compared to 548,900 kilograms produced for the same period in 2022.
“You all have to help the Government. The Government is doing this to ensure that people benefit from this; not only you all must benefit – it is for the entire country to benefit. That is the kind of intervention we are making that when we help you, you would produce more and the price would go down, but you all have the opposite – instead of carrying it down, you all are carrying up the price,” the Minister pointed out.
Back in 2021, there were 80 shrimp farmers along the Corentyne Coast. That number has now risen to 125. Production was 9,300 kilograms monthly. Now the monthly production is 98,000 kilograms.
According to Mustapha, the goal is to carry production to 1.5 million tonnes per year.
Meanwhile, brackish water shrimp producers say the increase in prices is a result of demand and supply noting that 75 percent of their catch is sold to overseas territories which they refer to as the diaspora. (G4)