Pomeroon Trading Inc looking to expand Guyana’s coconut products

With Guyana once again taking up its place in Caricom as the lead on agriculture, the Government has been aggressively promoting and supporting investment and development of the agriculture sector.
In addition to rice and sugar production, focus is now being placed on the cultivation of non-traditional and high-earning commodities. One such industry is the coconut industry. Since taking office, the Government, through the Agriculture Ministry, has moved to develop the sector by ensuring proper planting materials are easily accessible to farmers across the country.

Last year, as part of the Hope Coconut Industries Limited (HCIL) emergency budgetary allocation, two new coconut nurseries were established, one at Kairuni on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway and the other in Charity, Region Two (Pomeroon Supernaam). Furthermore, the Ministry has announced plans to establish six additional nurseries across the country during this year.
On Tuesday, representatives from Pomeroon Trading Inc met with Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha to discuss the company’s current operations and plans for expansion in the future, in the coconut industry.
Pomeroon Trading Inc Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Duncan Turnbull told Minister Mustapha that, so far, they were able to cultivate close to 400 acres with about 35,000 seed nuts. He also said that the company was able to establish fruitful relationships with farmers in the Pomeroon to ensure it got the required quality of seed nuts before it commenced operations.
“We started planting about three years ago. Right now we are doing a seedling nursery. We always start with a nursery, because we want to do the seedlings ourselves. We want to control the quality of the seed nuts and the health of the palms so we are very selective with the seedlings,” Turnbull said.
He added, “We’ve been able to establish relationships with farmers from the Pomeroon and we have a team of agronomists who go around, hand-selecting the seed nuts from trees that are the right age and have all the visible and desired characteristics required. The nuts are then sorted, cleaned, and planted in the nursery. Every two months we carry out checks on their growth, strength, and appearance to be able to decide whether they have what we are looking for.”
The company’s Chief Operations Officer (COO), Jared Kissoon said that they have visited several farms and identified which trees bore the characteristics they desired.
“We have about three or four small farmers earmarked. They have select trees on their estates that are bearing. When they have droplets, they would usually put them aside and we would do our selection for purchasing. In that way can always identify the parent plant, which is very important. Our mortality has also gotten better. As we go along, we’ve learned how to maintain the plants,” he said.
According to Kissoon, the company is exploring retail and export opportunities and he thinks the local market would be a good learning place in terms of setting up long-term operations for export.
Pomeroon Trading currently cultivates the three-year dwarf variety primarily for the production of coconut water. It is also involved in inter-cropping, with crops like passionfruit, bananas, turmeric, and ginger under cultivation.
Turnbull explained that the company’s ultimate goal was to acquire more land to expand is operations, as well as establish a processing facility.
“Once we have this facility set up, we would not only take produce from our farms but from other farmers in the Region. So far, we’ve invested approximately US$3 million since we started. In order to expand our cultivation and construct the processing facility, we would like to invest another US$8 million. We are currently engaging additional investors to buy into the project. We’re working very closely with the United States Government and USAID. If we can get those sums within the next six months, we would start straight away,” Turnbull said.
The CEO also said that the company was currently exploring a joint venture with Trinidad and Tobago to export coconut water. However, he said the company’s aim was to become US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified to be able to export its products to the United States.
Pomeroon Trading Inc is a private company with shareholders that commenced operations in Guyana four years ago and currently employs close to 65 persons.
Minister Mustapha complimented the team for their investment so far. He told them that a host of new opportunities would soon be made available in the agriculture sector.
“Very soon, a number of new opportunities will be made available for local farmers as we are currently working to address barriers to trade in the Caribbean. After His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali would’ve submitted a paper to Caricom on advancing the agriculture agenda, a task force was set up that Guyana is chairing. So we are working aggressively to tap into the Caricom market, which is a very large and lucrative market,” Minister Mustapha said.
He also disclosed that although COVID-19 has affected the entire world, Guyana’s agriculture sector has recorded growth for the first quarter of the year.