Guyana to partner with int’l airports, supermarkets to sell local products

As the Guyana Government forges ahead with plans to expand food production and agro-processing, President Dr Irfaan Ali has disclosed that Guyanese products packaged for sell will soon be available at international airports and supermarkets.
According to the Head of State, this initiative is “actively” being pursued with support from various Government entities, including the Tourism, Industry and Commerce Ministry.
“We want to see a Guyana Shop in the busiest airport in the world. I have already asked the Minister of Tourism to examine the possibility of us… having a Guyana Shop at JFK, a Guyana Shop in Toronto, Miami where you can pass through and pick up products of Guyana. Whether it’s agro-progressing products, whether it’s hammocks ,because every product carries a story. It’s the story that attracts persons to products. We are doing a very poor job at telling the story of our products,” President Ali said.
President Ali made the announcement during a recent event held by the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC).
He told the gathering that Government was ready to invest in the initiative, noting that the project’s primary goal was to make local products more accessible and visible to investors within the regional and international markets.
On this point, the Head of State explained that work was ongoing to do same in local supermarkets here.
“We have to find a way in which local supermarkets must not in the back shelf, must in the most prominent shelves carry our local products, but we also as a Government, we have to embark on buying shelf space and branding space on the international shelves and regional shelves to take our products,” the Head of State added.

Agro-processing
Since 2020, the number of agro-processors has increased dramatically from 116 to 283 and due to the construction of some 13 agro-processing facilities, 90 Guyana Shop corners were created.
Further, in the past four years, the GMC has invested over $468 million in agro-processing facilities, solar dryers, and other equipment to further boost the industry.
Currently, the GMC houses 3599 products of varying sizes and brands including sauces, jams, and spices.

Food production
Moreover, Government’s investments in the agricultural sector, particularly in non-traditional crops, has resulted in the country earning as much as $919 million from exports to regional and international markets.
This represents a 12.7 per cent increase in food export sales when compared with the same period in 2023.
According to statistics, the sales amounted to 4156 metric tonnes of produce for export this year, and this is the result of increases in legume production which increased by 106 per cent, peanuts which saw an increase of 286 per cent, and ground provisions and vegetables which increased by an average of 218 per cent.
According to President Ali, the increase in agricultural exports is the result of strategic investments made by his Government.
He explained that at this rate Guyana was expected to save over US$60 million on the importation of three key commodities: corn, soya beans and shrimp by 2027. (G1)