Over 154, 000 pounds of shrimp produced locally in June

Over 154, 000 pounds of shrimp were produced at the brackish water shrimp project in June, signaling a big boost to the government’s ambitions.

Under the initiative, the ruling PPP/C hopes to meet an objective of 500,000 kilogrammes by 2025. With these latest figures, along with the previous production, the accomplishment of that goal is at some 75 per cent.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event on Friday last, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said the increase will assist with the reduction of Guyana’s food import bill.

He said, “brackish water shrimp is another successful area for us. We were able to move production from 12,000 kilogrammes when we started out.”

“We have already moved it [shrimp production] to 70,000 kilogrammes in June,” the Minister said.

The minister said this project, among many others started by the government, is just the start of the substantial improvements that the Agriculture sector will undergo. He noted that the arrival of the black belly sheep on Thursday, was also a step closer to reducing the food import bill.

However, he importantly added that the brackish water shrimp production in June also exemplifies that Guyana is closing in on its food security goals. He explained that these efforts will assist with pushing the food security agenda in Guyana.

“Hopefully at the end of this month, we can increase that [shrimp production] substantially more. I am looking forward that we can move it to 120,000 kilogrammes monthly so that we can have almost 1.2 million kilogrammes in that area annually,” the Agriculture Minister said.

The government is pushing for an increase in production of the fisheries subsector, moving it from 250,000 kilogrammes to 500,000 kilogrammes by 2025.

The brackish-water shrimp production initiative was rolled out on the Corentyne Coast of Region Six with 63 more pond and higher production of this shrimp seen in 2021 when compared to 2020.

$55 million was approved in February for the fisheries subsector, with $30 million set aside to be spent on the brackish water shrimp project. This money was allocated for the purchasing of tubes, boxes and some sluices.