As Guyana kicks off its annual October Agriculture Month for 2026, the South American nation’s government has rolled out a flagship initiative to lower grocery costs for consumers and guarantee fairer earnings for domestic agricultural producers: regular weekly farmers’ markets that cut exploitative middlemen out of the fresh produce supply chain.
The first of these accessible, farmer-led markets opened its doors to the public at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Sophia Exhibition Centre in Greater Georgetown, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha confirmed during the official Agriculture Month launch ceremony held at his ministry’s compound at the intersection of Regent Street and Vlissengen Road. Going forward, these community-focused markets will become a permanent, recurring feature across every administrative region of the country, bringing affordable fresh fruits and vegetables directly to shoppers nationwide.
“Farmers put in endless hours, rising before dawn and working long into the evening to grow the food our nation depends on, but for too long they have not seen the fair profits their work deserves,” Mustapha told attendees at the launch. “Meanwhile, middlemen who contribute no work to growing our food buy produce at rock-bottom prices from producers and mark up costs exponentially for end consumers. These new farmers’ markets fix that broken system: they let farmers keep full value for their harvest, and let Guyanese families access fresh, local produce at far lower prices.”
The push for direct-to-consumer farmers’ markets originated from President Irfaan Ali, who first proposed the policy several weeks ago as a targeted measure to ease growing cost-of-living pressures on Guyanese households. Beyond the immediate market initiative, Mustapha also provided an update on a long-term infrastructure project that will position Guyana as a leading global food exporter: construction of the national food hub at Yarrowkabra, located along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, is progressing steadily in collaboration with U.S.-based agribusiness firm Blumberg Grain. Once completed, the hub will strengthen supply chain capacity, reinforce Guyana’s reputation as a consistent, reliable food supplier for regional and international markets, and support the sector’s long-term growth.
Agriculture Month has been a yearly fixture in Guyana for decades, designed to highlight the critical role of the agricultural sector to the nation’s economy, food security, and rural livelihoods, while rolling out new policy initiatives to support producers and consumers alike.