Latest update April 17th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 08, 2010 News
Venezuela finances key agri project:
Farmers facing severe transportation constraints to ship their produce will see their plight eased considerably as government yesterday signed an agreement for the purchase of four refrigerated trucks and five refrigerated containers.
The $66M contract was signed Wednesday by Nizam Hassan, General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) and Mohamed Razack, Sales and Marketing Director of National Hardware at the Ministry of Agriculture.
The trucks will be used to take produce directly from farms to the processing facilities at Sophia or Parika.
Explaining, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, said that overtime, many farmers concentrate on the harvesting of their produce and not much attention is being paid to the challenges of shipping to the market. In many cases, the produce would suffer from damage due to exposures and other factors. This ultimately affects the final market of the suppliers and consumers, and can lead to the possible loss of market over quality issues.
The trucks, which will be managed by the New GMC, will provide a crucial, cheap way for farmers to get their produce to the packaging facilities leaving them time to concentrate on other key areas of marketing.
Present at the signing were Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana, Dario Morandy and his Counsellor, Carlos Pestana-Macedo.
The role of the New GMC has also evolved over the years to facilitate these developments within the Agricultural Sector. It no longer buys or sells agricultural commodities but supports and enables agri business development, especially in the area of export marketing of non-traditional agricultural commodities, Persaud said.
Where infrastructure is not yet developed by the Private Sector, the Ministry of Agriculture has been providing same through its agencies and departments. In the case of marketing of non-traditional agricultural produce, the Ministry, through the New GMC has made two packaging facilities available for use by farmers and exporters; one in Parika and the other in Sophia, Georgetown.
In 2009, 2,031 tonnes of fresh produce were prepared for export at these facilities.
The procurement of the trucks and container is part of a project entitled “Improving the Cold Chain for Non-Traditional Agricultural Produce” and is financed through a programme of support by the Venezuelan Government to the cost of US$859,600.
The project will also see the purchase of field crates for use by farmers to minimise post harvest losses from the field to the pack-house; the construction of a collection area for farmers’ produce and the building of a fresh produce pack-house at Timehri International Airport, which will be used by producers to prepare produce for export.
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