Govt willing to co-invest in sausage plant, chicken nugget facility

As the Government continues to enhance its food production and diversify its current meat output, President Dr Irfaan Ali has disclosed plans to co-invest in both sausage and protein plants.
“In the forward planning, I am now proposing that we have some co-investment in a sausage plant, to meet the local and regional demand; a protein plant for aquaculture, because when we ramp up production, we’ll have more waste products that we can use for the production of protein for aquaculture; and the chicken nugget facility that comes with the sausage plant,” Ali has said.
The President made this remark on Friday, during a poultry symposium hosted by the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) in which he proposed rebuilding the poultry sector to become more sustainable, viable, and profitable. He noted that opportunities exist to branch out into both regional and international markets.

“We create, through the Guyana Marketing Corporation, a brand that will now go through the region, because we have specific trade arrangements. We have low-hanging opportunities in other large regional markets like Cuba and Dominican Republic. And then, of course, we have emerging potential markets in the United States (US),” Ali has said.
Meanwhile, in another initiative to expand the country’s poultry industry, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha noted that the Government has also committed $50 million towards establishing a breeder programme, so hatching eggs can be produced right here in Guyana.
“We have a private farmer who has already started the breeder project. In this year’s Budget, with the Ministry of Agriculture, we have $50 million budgeted to start the breeder programme, so that we can produce our own hatching eggs [and] bring down the costs of hatching eggs,” Mustapha said during the symposium. “Rather than importing it into the country, we can produce it right in Guyana.”
Guyana currently imports about 52 million eggs each year at the cost of some $350 million. This initiative aims to ensure that hatching eggs are produced sustainably, both locally and eventually for the export market.
The Minister remarked that this breeder programme is one of several Government-led plans to position Guyana as a net exporter of poultry.
“The Government has been providing incentives in priority areas of agro-processing: coconut, corn and soya beans; beef and, more importantly, poultry production. We are looking forward to being a net exporter of poultry,” Mustapha has said.
This is in keeping with Guyana’s goal to reduce the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
According to Guyana Poultry Producers Association (GPPA) Chairman David Fernandes, the poultry industry is the largest non-traditional sector in the country, with 80 per cent of meat consumed by Guyanese being poultry.
With six large operations and thousands of small and medium-scale farmers specializing in various types of poultry, the industry employs and supports over 18,000 persons.
Given the sector’s significant contribution to Guyana’s food security and economic development, the President has signalled a need to enhance it to be one of the region’s leading poultry sectors.
As such, among a number of Government-led initiatives, the President has highlighted plans to increase cold storage facilities, provide small farmers with loans to aid their production, cover the costs of required vaccines, consider implementing a zoning system to better manage poultry, and produce corn and soya for feed production.