…Pres Ali, PM Mottley visit site
President Dr Irfaan Ali and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley along with other officials from both countries conducted a site visit of the location where the Guyana/Barbados Food Terminal will be constructed in Lears, St. Michael, Bridgetown.
The Food Terminal, which will be constructed on seven acres of land, will boast a multi-purpose facility to accommodate about 45 containers, cold storage and packaging and processing plants. The area will also have a large reservoir for water storage and land set aside for crop production.
President Ali travelled to Barbados on Friday for the opening of Agro Fest in Bridgetown, where some 45 Guyanese businesses are participating in the two-day exhibition being held on May 28-29 under the theme: “Greening Together Ah Caribbean Thing”.
During his feature address at the opening ceremony on Friday, the Guyanese Head of State posited that the Food Terminal initiative being undertaken by the two countries is not only aimed at helping with the movement of products across the region and reducing the cost of local produce but also provides the opportunity to access new markets both within and outside of the Caribbean.
“It is aimed at developing an important transhipment hub for food here in Barbados to move on to different hotel chains in other Caribbean islands and to move on to Miami. We must believe that we can do it. We must stop thinking narrowly that we cannot achieve these things… We’re setting bold targets. We are working on bold and innovative ideas. At the end of it, it is only bold thinking, bold initiatives, and pursuing those initiatives and ideas that would ensure we are successful.”
“Our market is not only the people in the region. Our market is the tourists who come here, our market is all those who we have trade agreements with and we must stop thinking that we are too small to advance our products in those markets. We can differentiate our products. We can have the best of organic pineapples that carry twice the market value but we have to be thinking people,” President Ali posited.
Water catchment
Meanwhile, earlier on Saturday, the Guyanese Leader joined PM Mottley for the officially commissioned a large water catchment—the Brown’s Pond Catchment— in St Philip, Barbados.
President Ali praised his Barbadian counterpart for having the “forward-thinking vision” to invest in the “transformative project” that will increase the productivity of farmers and enhance their ability to be sustainable while Barbados and the Caribbean move towards food security.
Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha and Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond as well as other government officials were also for both events on Saturday.
