Agri gains

In the last week, there was a confluence of three events that signalled a rise in the agricultural profile of our country. These were the commissioning of the GuySuCo Packaging Plant at Enmore; the signing of a third mega-contract for rice and paddy with Venezuela; and (with somewhat less fanfare, but no less significance) the harvesting of rice and beans in the Rupununi. These are important advances, particularly against the background of the rising food insecurity that is plaguing large swathes of the world.

Sugar remains a linchpin of our economy, even though to an ever decreasing extent, as other niches, such as gold and services, surge ever upwards in the fast-changing globalised world. However, the need to increase sugar’s profitability is paramount at this stage, because of the unilateral 36 per cent slashing by the EU of the price negotiated under the Lomé and its successor Cotonou agreements. The government has evolved a multi-pronged response, notably to decrease production costs through the investment in the modern Skeldon Sugar Factory and massive mechanisation of field operations.

At the other end is the thrust to add value to our sugar, which had traditionally been sold in bulk to either be refined into white sugar or to be packaged for resale directly to the consumer. The packaged sugar was always sold at a premium price per pound, compared to the bulk variety. With the growing awareness of the greater risks inherent in processed foods, the semi-processed brown sugar market has grown by leaps and bounds. The profitability of going down this route, not surprisingly, rose commensurately.

The Enmore Packaging Plant will go a far way in improving the industry’s profitability overall. This, along with the other measures, should eventually generate enough profits to allow management to raise workers’ wages. GuySuCo has been enmeshed in a Catch-22 situation in which it has been unable to capitalise on an unusually high world market price bubble because of poor worker attendance and even poorer weather conditions.

The new rice contract with Venezuela, initially negotiated by Presidents Jagdeo and Chavez, and now in its third incarnation, is even more strategic. As we have belaboured in some recent editorials, the price of grains – especially rice – will be pushed inexorably upwards by increasing demand from the two emerging economic giants, China and India. Rice is their main staple. In the meantime, the Latin American market is also burgeoning, as the region bucks the recession in the older markets of Europe. Our experience in servicing the Venezuelan market will stand us in good stead as we strive to satisfy the standards demanded by Latin America. The importance of the GRDB’s involvement to ensure strict quality control is encouraging. Our farmers and millers will have to be conditioned to the demands of various markets.

As we intimated, the small harvest of rice and beans in the Rupununi (specifically Moco Moco) ranks right up there with the other accomplishments. This is because, if we are ever to really take full advantage of the opportunities inherent in the food insecurity plaguing the world, we will have to go beyond our coastal plain and cultivate our intermediate and interior savannahs.

But the soils in these two areas of vast available acreage need extensive intervention to counter their excessive acidity or alkalinity, as the case may be.

The small plots of rice and beans that are being harvested have been facilitated by a Spanish program that is surely being monitored by several investors that have already shown interest in large scale agricultural operations. It is our hope that our local investors will take advantage of their insider status and do not complain if foreign corporations tie up these “green gold mines” because of their lassitude.

The present gains in agriculture are only the tip of an iceberg of prosperity waiting to be uncovered.