Vegetable growers, extensionists trained to improve food safety practices 

Some 25 vegetable growers and extensionists are participating in a series of indoor and outdoor training exercises to prepare them to meet the requirements that would allow them to export fresh fruits and vegetables to the United States (US).
This three-day Grower Trainer Workshop is being hosted by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) with support from the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) programme, and funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
This training initiative aims to promote understanding of the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule in order to increase competitiveness and the technical capacity of food safety professionals to comply with the requirements of the US’ FSMA.

During the opening ceremony of this training session on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha welcomed the exercise, which seeks to enhance the technical abilities of agricultural producers, and acknowledged that the development of Guyana’s food safety system is an ongoing process.
“Guyana’s national policies are aligned with the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) Vision 25 by 2025, and as the lead for agriculture in Caricom, has been on the fast track to replacing imported food and being a major regional exporter of food. As such, we have no option but to rapidly improve our food control systems to fully meet regional and international standards,” Mustapha said.
He further stated that while the Government is steadfast in its efforts to ramp up production of several priority commodities, among which are fruits and vegetables, the ultimate goal is to reduce the country’s dependence on extra-regional imports while creating an environment for local exporters to be able to access international markets.
“As of half-year (2023), Guyana’s other crops sub-sector grew by 9.4 per cent. In 2022 Guyana exported to the US a quantity of fruits, vegetables and agro-processed products totalling 673,985 kg, with the total exports for the first half of 2023 increasing to 744,424kg,” Mustapha said. “There has been an increasing demand for primary products and agro-processed products such as coconut and coconut water, fresh and frozen fruits, pineapples, mangoes, achar, and pepper among several other commodities,” he added.
The training, which concludes on Friday, is being facilitated by professionals from Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, and other staff from IICA’s Guyana Office.
In recent months, Guyana has been seeing increased interest in the export of agricultural products to other countries, not just to the US. In April, Minister Mustapha had disclosed that there was considerable interest from Caricom members – Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda – to import fresh produce from Guyana. As such, efforts were intensified to address the issue of non-tariff barriers to trade to allow Guyanese products to enter regional markets.
Meanwhile, according to the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Guyana is also seeing interest from the United Kingdom (UK) in importing fruits. British High Commissioner Jane Miller had expressed that it would be beneficial for small scale local producers to form joint ventures and capitalise on economies of scale. (G13)