Permanent farmers markets to cut cost of living, cash grants are not the solution – Ali

Last Updated on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, 21:41 by Writer

President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday said his government was considering the establishment of permanent farmers’ markets across the country to cut out middle men and so cushion the impact of the spiralling cost of living.

“We may need to look at the creation of farmers’ markets across the country as a permanent part of our buying ecosystem, so that farmers have direct access to the market,” he told a news conference.

He said retailers were jacking up the cost of produce ten times more than they have purchased from farmers.

“We have the issue of the exorbitant profit lines that the retailers are charging, or the add-on, if you want to put it that way.” he said.

The Guyana government has over the years held farmers’ markets through the New Guyana Marketing Corporation for selected items at lower prices.

Citing the financial gains by supermarkets, he said more Guyanese were buying at supermarkets rather than the municipal and village markets where the prices are lower.

He said in addition to new shopping patterns, Guyanese have developed new eating patterns such as buying more cooked food.

He said the government has used all of the available tools such as the elimination of the excise tax on fuel, but at the same time the costs of inputs such as pharmaceuticals and fertiliser have increased largely due to the war in the Middle East.

“We’ve given subsidies to the farmers, so we’ve exhausted almost every policy tool to support the costs of production. We have removed the increases in the costs for D&I (drainage and irrigation) services, land rental fees. All that was increased by the last government,” he said.

The president urged Guyanese not to see cash grants as the solution to the rising cost of living.

“No amount of grant will address it. Grants are there to support different level of vulnerability and to support injection for family income. We have to address it in a structural way,” he said.

The People’s National Congress Reform-led A Partnership for National Unity has in the past recommended the countrywide increase in food production as well as subsidies to ease the impact of price increases.

The government has also recognised the need to increase domestic agricultural output in order to push down prices.