The Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology on Wednesday disclosed that it recently ceased the production of sun-dried tomato ketchup, but assured that the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) has taken over the entire project with new arrangements for the production.
“We’re not making ketchup right now. To be honest, we’re not making ketchup… No, it’s different plans I think they have for the tomato project… We were producing it up to like last month or so, we’re producing a very small amount and it’s actually (closing) off now because NAREI, the NAREI on the East Coast, they’ve taken over, they’re running the entire agriculture aspect… They have different plans right now with production and they are going into a different agriculture aspect in the Pakaraimas… So, we had a little that’s growing and we’re just finishing up that now,” said Deonarine Jagdeo, Director at Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (IAST).
Jagdeo also relayed that the reduction in the demand for sun-dried ketchup on the market may be one of the reasons for this and the fact that there’s a lot of ketchup on the market.
Questions had been raised why sun-dried ketchup was no longer on the Guyana Marketing Corporation’s (GMC) shelves and when asked about the product, an employee on Wednesday stated, “… for two years now, GMC did not get any in stock.” She added that she was not sure about the reason behind this and had to clarify it with her senior.
Since the project began in 2018, farmers in Region Eight had benefitted from the project despite the drought and flood challenges that severely affected the crops that were planted to meet the expected increase in demand for 2022. Many of them were unemployed before the project because although they farmed other crops, they did not have access to markets. Jagdeo assured these farmers that NAREI had other plans for them and assured they would not be left without an income.
“So, they have different plans… the farmers who normally grow the tomatoes, we didn’t go back into big farming. A few staff were just finishing off on whatever we had down there… So, it is not like large amount right now…We have the infrastructure and everything in place, so in case they need, they have any new plans,… we can actually do it, no problem.”
A Department of Public Information (DPI) release in 2018 had said the project started out with the production of tomato ketchup and salad dressing under the Pakaraima Flavours brand.
Tomatoes were chosen because they do not require significant capital expenditure to cultivate and could be dried. The funding for the project came from the Government of Guyana through the Ministry and the Canadian High Commission with technical support from IAST, NAREI and the Board of Industrial Training. The primary products are the ketchup and salad dressing.
A co-operative approach to the project was taken by the farmers of the North Pakaraimas. This entailed diffusing the risks to farmers, enabling volume supply and embracing full economic flow back to the members.
