Rum has become the region’s largest export- DDL chairperson

Jun 06, 2019 News

By Mikaila Prince

Chairperson of Demerara Distillers Limited, Komal Samaroo, said at the luncheon presentation of 21st Caribbean American Legislative Week that rum has become the region’s largest agriculture-based export earner, even in the face of significant reduction in earnings from sugar which has been facing major marketing and production challenges.
In Guyana based on information in the 2018 Central Bank report, while in 2016 export earnings from the sugar was two times that of rum, in 2018, sugar earned only 56% of what the rum industry earned from exports.
In addition, he stated that there is a need to broaden the base on the regional economy. The agricultural potential must be fully exploited, and the investments made in agro-progressing so as to move higher up the value chain. Similar strategies must be pursued in the forestry and mineral sectors.
The newly emerging Oil and Gas industry in Guyana, according to Samaroo, would most certainly provide an increased revenue stream, if well managed, can help create a competitive environment for the other sectors of the economy to develop in a sustainable manner, becoming globally competitive, and contributing to the growth and improvement in the quality of life of its people.
Institute of Caribbean Studies (ICS) has been doing over a number of years, advancing the cause of the cause of the Caribbean in the Diaspora in the US and to forge the initiatives designed to bring out about a better quality for the life for the people of the Caribbean, a place which is characterized by the USA as its “third border”.
The United States is the primary trading partner for the Caribbean, representing a vibrant economic partnership that in 2016 saw a $4.6 billion surplus for the United States, 14 million U.S tourist visits, and 11,042 Caribbean students studying in the United States.
This lively economic partnership however requires that the Caribbean region is better positioned to take advantage of its potential share of this vibrancy through the removal of existing barriers to market access in the US as well as expanded US investment and technology transfer in the region.

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