| – exploring expansion of NY capacity, bigger cargo plane for GuyanaLocal farmers facing problems exporting their produce to overseas markets may soon have some respite, with Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) announcing plans to introduce more flights to regional destinations and eventually expand its capacity to North America, the country’s biggest markets.On Wednesday, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Guyana Marketing Corporation, Guyana Trade and Investment Support Project, Guyana Non-Traditional Exporters Association, Guyana Revenue Authority, Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), several local exporters and representatives from the airlines met in the Ministry’s boardroom to explore the way forward.CAL also announced it was prepared to offer a 15% discount on fees to farmers for the next 12 months, after initially intending for a 90-day period.Farmers over time, in the midst of government’s drive to plant more, faced logistical problems of getting their produce to markets. In addition to delays during flight time,Cheap NFL Jerseys, a restrictive price and limited space were all challenges that faced exporters.There were also complaints by exporters on Wednesday of difficulty in the timely inspection of goods at the country’s airport.Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, who stressed that his Ministry was only acting as a facilitator in the process, admitted that shipping and air freight had been a longstanding problem facing exporters.This year,Cheap China Jerseys, to counter some of the problems, government is moving forward with plans to build a processing facility at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, which would include the continued presence of CANU,Wholesale Jerseys 2018, Customs and security officials to speed up the inspection of produce.Recently LIAT had introduced a freight service to regional countries.Caribbean Airlines Limited is hoping to initially take the produce to Trinidad, Barbados and Antigua and eventually to Toronto, Canada and New York,NFL Jerseys Cheap, USA.The Minister disclosed that a few years ago, government had offered to grant a licence for CAL to take produce directly to North America, but this initiative failed to take off.He acknowledged that government overtime had been worried of the impact of the “irritants” on the growth of the exported food industry from Guyana.Costs had in no small way proved to be an uncompetitive factor.“Guyanese exporters felt that they were being treated as second class to exporters from say, Trinidad and Tobago, and that they were given limited cargo space in terms of getting their goods to the market and then it comes back generally to consistent service,” Persaud pointed out.This year, Guyana has increased its budget for its agricultural diversification programme to $1.5B, an initiative which is specifically geared to improve food exports.Another major concern for government is the fact that persons had attempted to use produce being exported to smuggle drugs.Government has since implemented measures to share information with CANU, a state arm engaged in the drug fight.“I want Caribbean Airlines… and others who are involved in this particular business… to see Guyana as a growing market; a market to be taken seriously but also a market in which we demand fair treatment and we demand respect and we want to ensure that your customers, who are our exporters, are also given as much support as they need.”According to Carl Stuart, CAL’s Manager who is tasked with development of the airline’s presence in South America,Cheap NFL Jerseys, the company is hoping to introduce a larger aircraft to Guyana to deal with the demands.CAL intends to use information from Wednesday’s meeting to develop a list of exporters and their problems, with a view to finding solutions.According to Ken Joseph, CAL’s Cargo Sales Executive the airline already has intentions for a number of destinations.“We are thinking about doing a new venture into Guyana. We want to increase our cargo capacity, we want to increase volumes of what we are moving out of Guyana into Port of Spain, into Barbados, into Antigua, into Kingston, into Canada and New York and that volume is going to come from you guys and all the meeting is about is to get your support for that venture.” |
