Local heart of palm processor Amazon Caribbean Guyana Ltd (AMCAR) has indicated that the company has not permanently closed its Berbice factory and will resume operations once adequate supplies become available.
AMCAR was at the time responding to a statement by the Guyana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) which Monday said it was shocked to learn that AMCAR had decided to close its Berbice operations, leaving 30 workers jobless.
In a statement on Tuesday, the company said that it requires 200 harvesters and a supply of 500 manicole palms (cabbages) to keep its Berbice factory functioning, but despite many efforts to arrange harvesters supply has not been consistent.
The company said that this year it increased the price paid per manicole, making it possible for a regular harvester to earn up to $150,000 per month by working five days a week for four to six hours per day.
Harvesters, especially those in remote areas, have the option to be paid by bartering with the company whereby about 100 items including rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil are available on the company’s boat at cost price.
The company said it has also visited areas such as Morinama, Wiruni and Calcuni to promote the harvesting of manicole cabbages and has been advocating for the authorities to allow Venezuelan migrants from the Warrau community to supply them.
However, despite these efforts supply was not as consistent and was insufficient for the company to reach breakeven at the Berbice factory forcing them to stop production, the company said.
“The financial analysis of the first 6 months of 2022 confirmed that it was not feasible for the Berbice factory to continue operating with such a low volume of cabbages. One additional month was given to turn around the situation with the help of all agencies involved,” the statement noted.
AMCAR said that over the last two years they have periodically advised GAWU about their difficulties in Berbice due to the lack of harvesters however GAWU “never really took any actions” in assisting to locate harvesters.
In June, following a meeting with the company’s managing director and President Dr. Irfaan Ali, a committee including New Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Tourism was established.
That committee was tasked to work along with the company on several projects, including actions to locate additional harvesters to supply manicole for the heart of palm factories.
AMCAR noted that its Berbice factory is also geared to produce fruit juice and fruit chunks as US$500,000 was invested in equipment over the past 5 years to enable it to do so.
The Berbice factory has the capacity to process daily tons of pineapples, ginger, turmeric, acai, and passion fruits all of which AMCAR has planted to secure supply to the factory and to complement supply from independent farmers.
The company said however that as of July 2022, the company had no fruit to process in its Berbice factory and even though they bought some non-organic fruit from farmers the price was too high to make any processed product competitive.
Fuel prices also contributed to the factory closing, the statement noted.
However, the company is confident that with the committee established by President Ali they will soon have adequate supply to resume production in Berbice and expand its Barima, Region One operations.
The company said that workers at the factory will be paid until August 22, 2022 and will also receive their severance benefits as per the Severance Act. Priority will also be given to them in the rehiring process when the factory reopens.
