The Berbice Chamber of Commerce has listed sluggish paddy prices, the inability of GuySuCo to achieve its crop production targets and falling gold prices as being among the primary reasons for the disappointing performance of the economy of New Amsterdam and its environs this year.

“For most businesses it was really a flat performance. Only a few businesses showed financial growth for 2014 when compared to 2013,” Chamber President Mark Roopnarine told Stabroek Business in a recent interview.

Roopnarine told Stabroek Business that even as the indifferent performance of GuySuCo had impacted negatively on both employment and earnings in the community, rice farmers were forced to absorb depressed paddy prices mainly on account of what millers asserted was the high cost of moving rice to Georgetown occasioned by toll rates for the crossing of the Berbice Bridge.