Namdevco can supply food hampers for next 3 months

The National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (Namdevco) has said it is capable to continue providing food hampers for the next three months for people in need.

Speaking with Newsday by phone on Tuesday its CEO Nirmala Debysingh-Persad said farmers have been able to constantly supply the required produce except for those affected by bad weather.

“Our farmers are in continuous production. So far, we have not had any reports of any farmer’s inability to produce, so we do not anticipate any shortfalls.

“We had problems with tomatoes earlier and this was because of weather conditions, and this was substituted. Farmers are back into production and the climate conditions have become favourable for this.”

Debysingh-Persad said the farmers have sustained and continue to sustain the country with their production capacity, and it was no different for this initiative.

“Our production capacity can sustain the current demand of the programme and the current demands of our market. Our markets are operating and there are no comments of people not being able to get any particular commodity.

"Likewise, at the municipal markets and the wholesale markets the activities are quite vibrant. The volumes (of produce) are there and continue to be available.”

On the increase in market prices, as reported in the National Agricultural Market Information System, Debysingh-Persad said Namdevco was not responsible for pricing structure, but worked with farmers to disseminate the information.

“We do not see any major deviations of what is expected at this time of the year. The farmers are strictly responsible for the prices. They determine the prices based on their various production practices (and) historic data, and we do not intervene in this.”

Though unable to give a breakdown of the goods bought for the project at the time of the interview, she said, “We purchased a significant amount of produce. The food baskets are quite hefty. It's in excess of 100,000 pounds of produce we have procured for the project.

"If there is need to provide more baskets, Namdevco is capable (of doing) so.”

On May 7, the Prime Minister announced that because of the stricter covid19 restrictions 25,000 families will be supplied with food items such as sweet potato, dasheen, cassava, plantain, squash, pineapple, citrus, pawpaw, cucumbers, bodi, sweet pepper, hot pepper, tomatoes and chicken, with slight variations in the packages.

Earlier in May, Minister of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Clarence Rambharat said the initiative was expected to cost the government $10 million for the initial period, May 3-23.

During the extension of the initiative into May, June and July, he confirmed on Tuesday, it was expected to remain the same for each month.