TT looking to establish dairy plants in Guyana

TIMES INT'L
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy

As Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago seek to develop projects that will assist in reducing the food import bill, both governments will continue talks to determine what initiatives will be best.
In a recent visit by Trinidad Food Production Minister Devant Maharaj, and his delegation, the group identified specific plans that their country was hoping to implement in Guyana.
Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy, in an exclusive interview with Guyana Times International, said that Guyana is pleased that under the Jagdeo Initiative, the Trinidadian government has shown interest in establishing a food security facility in the country.
He said that the Trinidadian minister met with President Donald Ramotar and other government ministers and signalled his country’s interest in a number of areas.
“We have talked about a number of areas where we can work together and the team visited various places in Guyana in terms of establishing farms. But that was only one part of the discussion, the possibility of Trinidad funding farms in Guyana, utilising Trinidadian entrepreneurs and Guyanese workers. The model we are working on for these farms is that not only will these farms be established through Trinidadian investment, but that our own farmers who are already practicing small-scale farming around those areas, will be part of a bigger project,” Dr Ramsammy explained.
This will provide Guyanese opportunities for agro-processing and export.
Dr. Ramsammy noted that while most of the discussions were mainly based on cash crops that are being imported by various countries in the region, other areas of interest by the Trinidadians were also expressed.
“During our discussions, it was clear that Trinidad has two major interests: The first has to do with establishing dairy plants in Guyana to address the supply of milk to Trinidad; the second major interest has to do with the supply of small ruminant meat and small ruminant animals such as sheep and goat. Trinidad is interested in utilising our farmers to continue the breed improvement programme that we introduced. They were quite interested in the Texana sheep for example and other breeds of animals,” the minister said.

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