GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The chief investment officer of the Guyana Office for Investment, Dr. Peter Ramsaroop, says the country is positioning its agricultural sector as a regional production and investment hub.
He said it is leveraging its land, freshwater resources, expanding infrastructure and strategic access to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) CARICOM and northern Brazil to strengthen food security across the Caribbean region.
“The investment proposition is straightforward: produce in Guyana, add value in Guyana and use Guyana as a platform to supply the Caribbean,” Ramsaroop said, noting that investment is being channelled into key areas including corn and soy production, livestock, aquaculture, large-scale farming, agro-processing, cold storage, logistics, packaging and value-added food production.
The focus is increasingly shifting away from the export of primary commodities, with Guyana seeking to attract investors to establish processing and other value-added operations locally.
This approach is expected to create greater productive capacity, expand employment and retain more of the value generated within the country.
Ramsaroop said this presents opportunities for CARICOM businesses through joint ventures, contract farming, processing facilities, regional distribution networks and technology partnerships.
CARICOM investment currently accounts for approximately five per cent of recorded investment activity in Guyana, with notable participation from Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as investments from Barbados in services and other Caribbean markets.
However, Ramsaroop said the broader objective is to deepen regional economic integration by creating supply chains that connect Caribbean capital and expertise with Guyana’s agricultural resources and access to South American markets.
He said as Guyana expands its agricultural production and processing capacity, the country is seeking to become more than a supplier of raw commodities, positioning itself as a regional platform where production, processing, storage, and distribution converge to support CARICOM’s food-security objectives.
Caricom has announced a plan to reduce food imports across the region through the Regional Food Production and Productivity Towards a Sustainable Import Replacement Programme titled 25% by 2025 Reduction in the Regional Food Bill.
The initiative is a bid to address the region’s Food Import Bill which Caricom said was quickly moving towards five billion US dollars and is substantial when viewed in the context of the sizes of the economies in the region and thus presents food security and other challenges to regional economies.
Earlier this year, Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha says construction of a regional food hub designed to strengthen food security and boost agricultural exports across the Caribbean is about 50 per cent complete and remains on track for completion by the end of the year.
