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Guyana is expected to boost honey production through the establishment of a national honey bank. The announcement was made by President Dr Irfaan Ali at the Private Sector Commission Limited’s 32 Annual General Meeting. The move to establish a national honey bank in Guyana is part of larger regional efforts to significantly increase honey production through the establishment of a regional honey bank, as envisioned by Barbadian Prime Minister, Mia Motley.
Honey production has been recognized as an important sector in need of further development by Caricom Member States.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Guyana and Cuba last year that will see Cuba providing technical assistance to Guyana in the area of beekeeping.
To ensure that honey production and other agriculture initiatives are implemented, the Head of State posited that the “government has shifted its focus from conducting more studies to deploying specialists to support the rollout of these initiatives.”
Nevertheless, there are still unresolved challenges to the export and transshipment of honey to Caricom member states like Trinidad and Tobago where non-tariff barriers still exist.
As part of the Trinidad and Tobago Bee Keeping and Bee Products Act of 1935, only honey originating from the Windward and Leeward islands can be transshipped there. The 1935 Act also regulates the importation and exportation of bee products and Bee supplies.