Speaking at a meeting in Belle West, West Bank of Demerara, Hon. Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, reminded residents of the many ways the Coalition government has been working to improve the lives of its citizens.
The Prime Minister spoke of the decision to have the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Business attend a meeting at Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) to discuss the way forward.
“We went to inspect their processing plant where they were producing juice…, as chairman of the business committee in Cabinet I maintained to the management of DDL, if they wanted to be one of the suppliers of juice, they would have to purchase buy cherries and guava, fruit from the local farmers.”
As a result, DDL’s investment of US$4Billion in their juice factory will directly benefit the farmers. Prime Minister also said, “… a foreign company is setting up a processing plant in Wales to make juice from the fruits purchased from Westside farmers.”
Citing another example, Prime Minister Nagamootoo recalled His Excellency’s President David Granger promise to establish a State Land Resettlement Commission that will ensure former sugar workers from Wales, Utivlugt and across the country have access to land. This he noted will allow them to have an opportunity to grow crops, in particular fresh fruit and greens for which there is a market in the Caribbean and further afield.
The rice farmers have also benefitted from measures implemented by the Coalition government. The Prime Minister recalled that on entering office in 2015 they met huge challenges in the sector. However, they set to work and created trade markets with Mexico and Cuba.
“Today we are producing in excess of one million tonnes of paddy, the largest production ever,” he declared.
