GEORGE Hanneman Bennett in his book, “An Illustrated History of British Guiana,” wrote that coffee was cultivated in the colony since 1721 after it was introduced from what is now Suriname. Inland and coastland plantations were laid out by the Dutch, where it was often cultivated alongside sugar, indigo, and cocoa. The coffee grown in the Pomeroon and other parts of the Barima-Waini region of the North West District is the oldest in the New World.
The records will show that the maximum amount of coffee ever produced in Guyana was just under 1,200 tonnes over 100 years ago and since then, the industry never got the right frame to get back up to those numbers. In 2019 coffee production was approximately 410 tonnes, most of which was produced in the Pomeroon area. The source of the trouble in this sector remains primarily marketing. Why is this so?
Timely intervention through the National Agriculture Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), and the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (NGMC) to position this product in the right selling space is essential at this point. And to understand how excellent quality this product is, one just has to skip on over to Amy’s Pomeroon Foods, the home of Guyana’s finest organic coffee to get a whiff of a world-class coffee. So it is not that Guyana does not have the right quality; we do not have the market matched by the production and the question really is, why not?
But what has to be done to increase production from the mainly Amerindian farmers? It has to be a coordinated approach between seeking out the markets and matching it to the production. The NGMC can and must do more for Guyana on this front. In 2019 the size of the coffee trade from Guyana surpassed US$1 million, but studies have shown that it can easily double if the right approach can be applied to the value chain working backward from market analysis, to market discovery, to market penetration to the actual planting of the crop.
NAREI has a nursery at Charity on the Essequibo Coast that can produce seedlings for the farmers and has done so in the past. So the planting material is not the problem, it is the support on the marketing front where the biggest challenge is situated.
To kick start the demand for our own homegrown product, why can’t “Made in Guyana” coffee be brewed in every government office in Guyana? Why can’t “Made in Guyana” coffee be advertised with government support in every newspaper of Guyana once per week? Why can’t every Guyanese embassy in every capital, especially the consulate in New York, push this product in the New York diaspora community? Why can’t major Guyanese traders such as Dave West Indian be engaged to export the product from Guyana into the “Little Guyana” communities? Again, the NGMC has to step up– and fast.
What is being discovered here is that not much needs to be done to shift the attitude of mind on this product, but much more coordination under auspices of the NGMC can be achieved, working in partnership with the private sector to break down doors so that we can double the production and sale of coffee from Guyana.
Cash in the North-West area for many of these farmers remains a scarce commodity and rather than subject them to poverty with a handout, let us empower them into building their productive capacity and ensure there is seed financing with the help of the commercial banks.
While around the world coffee has developed a reputation for bringing a few tangible benefits to those toiling to grow it, in Guyana this view can be different if we can cultivate the market at the organic level. The vision should be to grow the crop bio-dynamically without costly fertilisers or agrochemicals and thus not hitting the farmers as hard as if it were grown using chemicals. This production model was tested in Guyana and can be done, but nothing is possible without the marketing model being perfected and the initial financial support is provided to the farmers.
Ten years ago residents of a small village in India called Kabada Boddaput — in southeastern India’s remote Araku valley — were impoverished subsistence farmers, living in mud huts and getting by on the millet, yams, pumpkins, and greens they grew on their one to five-acre plots. Today with the support of their government and some philanthropic help, these novice growers are producing top-quality organic coffee, some of which are being sold as “speciality” coffee to select roasters and traders from Japan and South Korea. These high-end buyers — who taste and rate each lot before purchasing — are willing to pay up to 10 times the world market price for the best of the beans. This situation has transformed the lives of the farmers in the entire valley.
Right now anyone who wants ground coffee can access it inexpensively at the Beharry Group of Companies in Charlotte Street and Amy’s Coffee in Liliendaal. It is time Guyana buys more of the Made in Guyana brand since this product from the Pomoroon region is a much superior product than many of the lower-quality imports. And if you want to drink a cup of coffee, it is better to drink the real thing.