Diversifying or grow more?

Jul 21, 2013 Editorial

We wonder whether the Government will ever launch a “buy local” campaign for local produce? In the last few years, the Ministry of Agriculture has sheepishly made some stabs in that direction while pushing its “grow more food” and “diversifying” campaigns. It would appear that after the ‘busing down’ of the previous administration for “banning dhal and flour” the government does not want the two programmes to be linked. That is unfortunate.
But the idea behind the “buy-local” program was – and remains – essentially sound. Guyana is a poor country and we need to increase our rate of savings as a nation so as to facilitate investments that could provide the take-off momentum necessary for sustained economic growth. The money that was – and is – being spent on the goods and others such as sardines and apples could have been better spent on capital goods that would provide jobs – and wages – for Guyanese. The wages would have given them the wherewithal to purchase more local goods and boost employment in that sector as investors and producers rushed to satisfy the increased demand. All around, there was to be created a virtuous circle of increased production, savings and growth of the economy.
While there has been quite credible improvement in local food production, we are certainly not producing enough food to be deemed “food independent”: food imports have skyrocketed. We understand the need for variety in food choice but we are sure that at this point our food import bill must be reduced. The “buy local” campaign would create a local market platform for the “grow more food” campaign.
We threw out the baby with the bathwater after the buy-local program failed. That failure was not in the “buy-local” component but rather in the effective ban on, and consequent shortages in, what were considered “essential” items. We should have woken up by now to the fact that foreign investors and Caricom are not going to suddenly start breaking down our doors. Our local entrepreneurial class needs to be encouraged and facilitated. We believe that a buy-local program can play a catalytic role in this process of investment and job creation.
However, we have to learn from the missteps of our first foray. First and foremost there can be no “banning” – de-facto or otherwise – of any items. Under the present dispensation, this move is quite unlikely but it should be stated up front. After all, most economic decisions are based on psychological decisions of both the producer and the consumer and their minds therefore must be put at rest.
But if there is to be no banning, then the local products will have to be as good as, if not better, than the items they will seek to replace. We cannot undo the fact that our people have become even more accustomed to the high quality of the foreign producers and our producers will have to rise to the occasion. This will help our economy overall as we tighten our standards to match international ones. Take the easiest products that can kick-off a buy-local program – vegetables and other agricultural products, for instance. Our present packaging of the same, by and large, is simply non-existent. In many instances, products are simply strewn on unsanitary bags on roadsides. This will not do.
We note the efforts of the Government to open packaging plants for export in all the three counties. This is a good start but the effort must not only be geared for the export market: the local market itself must be groomed to demand the more sanitary products. This will increase the demand for packaging facilities and reduce the unit costs even for the exporters.
Then there is the matter of sustained and consistent supplies for purchasers. For a buy-local program to succeed we cannot force the new convert to return to the foreign product because the local one is not unavailable or is not up to standard. This has been the bugbear of all substitution programs: it must be addressed. Let us diversify our agriculture and buy local.

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