Govt moves to ease food prices by rolling out farmers’ market initiative

The government is rolling out farmers’ markets nationwide as part of a broader effort to ease food price pressure and narrow the gap between wholesale and retail prices, President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has announced.

The initiative comes as the government’s 2026 Mid-Year Report shows food prices climbed to 6.7 per cent in the first half of the year, with vegetables and vegetable products among the biggest contributors to inflation.

The report also identifies retail markups, increased demand, imported inflation and unfavourable weather as factors impacting food and energy prices.

President Ali, speaking during his latest press engagement, said the government is working through the Guyana Marketing Corporation to expand the farmers’ market initiative nationwide and bring farmers’ produce more directly to consumers.

“We are working on this plan to roll out farmers market nationwide,” he told reporters on Monday.

Unlike the usual weekly markets that are only open periodically, this arrangement will give farmers consistent access to consumer demand.

“We are now working with farmers to bring their produce directly to the market so we can have that the elasticity in terms of the differential between the wholesale and retail price address in a structured way,” he stated.

The Mid-Year report recorded a 4.4 per cent increase in overall consumer prices between December 2025 and June 2026, while food prices climbed 6.7 per cent.

Vegetables and vegetable products alone contributed 2.5 percentage points to the overall increase.

President Ali also pointed to recent interventions in chicken and egg sales, saying chicken prices had been reduced by almost half in participating markets and egg prices had also fallen substantially. He said the government now wants to work directly with farmers to widen that approach.

The nationwide rollout of pop-up farmers’ markets is part of a broader, multipronged effort to bring down food costs. [DPI]