Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 06, 2021 Consumer Concerns, News
By Pat Dial
Kaieteur News – Two weeks ago, the Pomeroon Trading Company’s executives met the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Zulfikar Mustapha, to discuss the expansion of their coconut development project. This occasion brought to mind the extraordinarily creative activities of this able Minister and secondly, the development of the Coconut Industry.
Minister Mustapha is one of the most knowledgeable persons in Agriculture in Guyana and has the commitment, skills and energy to revolutionise Agriculture in Guyana. For example, as soon as he assumed office as Minister, he addressed the problem of the long owing debt by Panama of several hundreds of millions of dollars to the rice farmers. Though the payment of this debt would have brought foreign exchange to the country, the previous Administration said the contract between Panama and the rice farmers was a private one and they could not be involved. The rice farmers felt abandoned. Minister Mustapha succeeded in having Panama admit their debt with promise to pay. Simultaneously, the Minister addressed the ailing Sugar and Rice industry; rice production increased and hundreds of sugar workers were again gainfully employed. He has embarked upon the process of making GuySuCo once again a profitable company and has been stimulating, resuscitating and reviving the other agricultural segments. He has been engaging his counterparts in other countries and the Diplomatic community to try to craft mutually beneficial agreements relating to Guyana’s exports.
When Minister Mustapha assumed office, he pointed out that Coconut was the third most important agricultural industry after Sugar and Rice and committed himself to developing it.
Coconut as an industry was first introduced and developed by Indian indentures. At the end of their indentureship, a few enterprising persons in all three counties rented, leased or purchased land which they put under coconut cultivation. From their experience in India, they were well acquainted with the many uses of coconut which was used as a food, to make confectionary and the making of oil. Until the 1970’s most of the cooking oil consumed in the country was coconut oil. The main company which produced refined coconut cooking oil was Wieting & Richter.
The coconut estates were overwhelmingly family owned and when the family died, retired or emigrated coconut production contracted and this led to the importation of foreign cooking oils. Simultaneously with the importation of foreign cooking oils, a successful propaganda campaign was carried against coconut oil as being dangerous to health and the demand for coconut oil diminished. It is only within the last ten years that the truth about coconut oil began to be exposed. Now, coconut oil, among many people worldwide, is preferable to olive oil.
The demand for coconut oil is steadily growing and the industry has begun to revitalise and Pomeroon Trading Inc. characterises that revitalisation. The main shareholder and investor in the company is Mr. Duncan Turnbull, a Briton, who is Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Jared Kissoon is his Operations Manager and they spoke to the media about their company. “We started planting three years ago,” said Mr. Turnbull in describing their venture, “Right now we are doing a seedling nursery. We always start with a seedling nursery because we want to do seedlings ourselves. We want to control the quality of the seed and the health of the palms . . . we’ve been able to establish relationships with the farmers of the Pomeroon and have a team of Agronomists who go around hand selecting the seed nuts from the trees that are of the right age and have all the visible and desirable characteristics. The nuts are then cleaned, sorted and planted in the nursery.”
The Operations Manager, Mr. Kissoon, gave further information about their project; he said they are involved in intercropping with crops like passion fruit, bananas, turmeric and ginger. They are also cultivating the 3-year dwarf variety of the coconut for the production of coconut water and are also exploring a joint venture with a company from Trinidad and Tobago with the aim of exporting. They are exploring the retail and export market in a holistic way and have found the local market a good learning place. The company intends to acquire more land and to establish a modern processing facility. Minister Mustapha complimented the company on its investment so far and assured interested persons that there would soon be unveiled a plethora of new opportunities in other segments of Agriculture. The coconut industry has a great future not only in oil production, the demand for which is growing exponentially, but in its by-products.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
Apr 24, 2024
Round 2 GFF Women’s League Division One Kaieteur Sports – The Guyana Police Force FC on Saturday last demolished Pakuri Jaguars FC with a 17 – 0 goal blitz at the Guyana Football...Kaieteur News – Just recently, the PPC determined that it does not have the authority to vitiate a contract which was... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]