Efforts are being made to exploit the global markets for Guyanese agricultural products. Are farmers or suppliers attending or will they continue to complain that govt ain't doing nothing. Entrepreneurs can not sit back and wait for govt to bring market to them, they have to attend conferences and do the legwork.
IICA forum today to focus on sourcing global markets
–for Guyana’s ‘agri’ products
THE Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture (IICA) will be hosting a forum today that is aimed at securing access for Guyana’s agricultural products to global markets.Farmers, fishermen and officials in the agricultural and fisheries industries as well as Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) officials and representatives of the private sector will meet today at Cara Lodge on Quamina Street, Georgetown, to discuss Guyana’s requirements from a project which aims to improve access for local agricultural products to global markets.
The project is the European Union (EU) aid project on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) for the 15 CARIFORUM states.
Generally, the main objective of the SPS programme, funded by the EU to the tune of 11.7 million Euros, is to increase production and trade in agriculture and fisheries which meet international standards while protecting plant, animal and human health and the environment in the CARIFORUM member states.
The project also aims to enable CARIFORUM states to gain and improve market access by complying with Europe’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures and to better develop their own regionally harmonized SPS measures.
The IICA is facilitating execution of the SPS in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat, Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the SPS Committee of The Dominican Republic.
SPS PROJECT
To be run over a period of 42 months, the SPS project is expected to deliver legislation, protocols, standards, measures and guidelines in the area of AHFS and fisheries for national and regional SPS regimes.
It will also deliver national and regional coordination mechanisms in support of the SPS regimes and national and regional regulatory and industry capacity of CARIFORUM states to meet the SPS requirements of international trade.
The agreement for the joint effort was signed last year during the Caribbean Week of Agriculture by the Director General of IICA, VÍctor M. Villalobos, and the Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union, Robert Kopecky.
The IICA programme at Cara Lodge today is part of the SPS country consultations which aim at enabling local stakeholders to give their inputs into the priority AHFS and fisheries needs which are necessary for compliance with the requirements of the regional and international markets, especially the EU.
The programme today includes a presentation entitled: “Overview of the SPS Project” by Ms. Carol Thomas, Hemispheric Agricultural Health and Food Safety Specialist (HAHFSS) attached to the IICA.
Participants will be welcomed by Mr. Wilmot Garnett, IICA Representative in Guyana; and there will be brief remarks by Mrs. June Masters, Statistics & Information Analyst, CRFM, brief remarks by a representative of the CARICOM Secretariat, remarks by Dr. Robert Ahern, Manager, IICA Agricultural Health and Food Safety Programme and a keynote address by Hon. Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Agriculture, before the participants form themselves into discussion groups.
IICA disclosed that the input of local stakeholders will also aid in the development of a Country Action Plan for addressing their needs under the SPS Project.
Written By Clifford Stanley
