Wholesale and retail businesses, as well as cash crop farmers in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), are complaining bitterly over the slothfulness of the economy within the region.
Many businessmen and companies operating within the confine of the region related that sales have decreased significantly and customer spending power has
Vendor Sattie Narine sitting as she waits for sales
lessened.
Guyana Times spoke with several vendors at the Anna Regina market and many of them related that things were “dull” and day by day businesses were becoming unprofitable. One vendor, Sattie Narine, said that for the entire day she sold $1500 and complained that people are not buying much.
Narine said that consumers are complaining about the heavy taxation that they have to pay and the lack of spending power, “people really not buying much, they come they ask price for things but they are not buying. What I find is that people are only buying what they need to eat, they not affording to wear fancy things, the economy is bad.”
Another vendor, Savita Persaud, attributed the slow sales to the low prices for paddy. She said she operate a stall in Charity and Anna Regina and has never experienced such a “tuff” economy. She said those vendors with perishable goods are the ones suffering the most.
“Money not circulating the way it used too, people just walking and watching, we vendors have to sit down and watch on, at the end we have to pay our stall rents, this is cause rice industry not doing well and when that happens Essequibo down, cause rice is the backbone,” Persaud related.
Vendor Denis Campbell, who ventures from the Charity area daily, also said that sales were slow. He said he is finding it hard but with optimism said he can’t give up.
Another vendor said many of the workers within the region, such as trench cleaners and labourers are owed monies, and as such, persons are not afforded the option to invest money. He also said nothing is being done in the region to really boost economic activity; lamenting that instead there is a lot of racial politics since the A Partnership for National Unity coalition Government came to power.
At Charity market, vendors complained bitterly, saying “Business slow… we coming from all over. Imagine I only sell $500 for today,” one vendor related. Vegetable vendors also can be seen in the evening having table loads of produce still unsold.
“We are producing but the buyers not coming forward, even we drop our price no one buying, we have family to maintain, business grey, things slow,” another cash crop vendor related.
Many persons are concerned and worried over the sudden slow up in the economy.
On the other hand, rice farmers in the region have harvested their lands and most of them are disappointed with the current prices being offered by millers. Many rice farmers related that they suffered losses due to the low prices that were paid.
