Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha agrees that the prevailing hot weather conditions have affected some farmers, but he believes that there are sellers hoarding produce and capitalising on the situation to hike the price of eggs, fruits and vegetables.
Mustapha said he was alerted to the sale of eggs at an exorbitant cost of $2,000 per tray. He doesn’t believe there are any shortages warranting the substantial increase in the cost of eggs.
When asked about the situation on Monday, he said: “We have enough in the system but people are just hoarding it and using the weather as an excuse to increase the prices.”
And he noted that the farmers are not the sellers hiking their prices. In fact, he believes it is the middlemen who purchase produce from the farmers and sell them at markets or in shops.
“These middlemen will go there, buy the thing cheap from the farmers, bring it out to the market and sell it at exorbitant prices,” Mustapha lamented.
To bring some relief to consumers, Mustapha said the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) has been tasked with supplying more produce at a controlled price. Eggs, for example, will be sold at $1,200 per tray.
The minister also said he has tasked National Agricultural Research and Extension institute (NAREI) with organising farmers’ markets across the country so that consumers will be able to purchase from farmers directly.
Mustapha also said the Ministry of Agriculture has been engaging farmers to help them employ best practices as they grapple with the heat and the El Niño conditions.
