Agri-Expo expected to be bigger this year – Mustapha

Sep 20, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The government is optimistic that the upcoming Agri Expo will be bigger and better than previous years and help to propel the growth of the Agriculture Sector and boost the investment climate.

Minister Mustapha and the Planning Committee examine the layout of the venue

The expo which is slated for October 20-22, will be the third in the Caribbean and the Second hosted in Guyana. Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha led the eleventh preparatory meeting on Tuesday with the planning committee and walked about the event’s venue, the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

“We are hoping and anticipating that this will be very big, a number of cooperate bodies have expressed interest in the region, in the Caribbean leaving out local business in Guyana. Over a hundred businesses would have indicated their intention of registering and getting on board. I’m hoping that by the end of the registration period which is by October 5^th we might have hundreds of those persons, who will register, and cooperate with businesses,” Minister Mustapha told the Department of Public Information in an interview.

The minister said the event is a good business opportunity as there are a number of potential investors coming to invest in agriculture in Guyana. “We have seen areas that are earmarked for exhibition for machinery, large businesses, roughly about 21 of those booths are large cooperate businesses. And then we have agro-processors [and] …farmers. So, we are catering for every single category of businesses…I’m anticipating that this time around, it will be bigger, it will be better than the last time,” he noted.

Some of the booths are up for rental

He said too that the last Agri-expo resulted in several investments in Guyana, including an Israeli investor now building the largest hydrophobics farm in the Caribbean, in Mon Repos, Guyana.

“This here will propel, move Guyana forward, and also help to get investment to reduce the food import bill that we are working on. You know our president Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali is leading agriculture in the Caribbean and since he took over that leadership, we have seen a renewed interest in terms of people coming into the sector. We have seen more and more countries now…getting involved in Agriculture. More and more countries are looking forward to Guyana for that leadership,” Minister Mustapha stated. He noted that although Guyana is now trying to modernise its Agriculture Sector, it is still providing leadership in agriculture for the Caribbean. Registration for the International Agri-Expo and Investment Forum closes on October 5. (DPI)

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Agri Expo, climate, investment, Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha

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