In a policy announcement made public this Wednesday, Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha confirmed that the South American nation has implemented a full ban on all banana imports from neighboring Suriname, citing ample domestic production that already meets full local market demand.
Speaking in an interview with Demerara Waves Online News, Mustapha made clear the scope of the new restriction: after receiving advance reports of incoming Surinamese banana shipments bound for Guyana’s markets, he has ordered an immediate halt to all cross-border imports of the fruit. “I have heard that bananas are coming. I told them to stop all the importation of bananas because our farmers have enough bananas to supply the system,” the minister stated.
Notably, Mustapha clarified that as of the announcement, no official commercial imports of bananas from Suriname have been recorded. The ban comes in response to informal complaints received from multiple domestic stakeholders concerned about potential undercutting from foreign imports, he added. The minister reaffirmed that Guyana currently holds more than enough stock of bananas to satisfy consumer demand across the country, leaving no economic justification for allowing foreign-grown fruit to enter local markets.
This import restriction aligns with a long-standing agricultural trade policy Guyana has maintained: whenever domestic production of any fruit reaches a volume sufficient to cover total local consumer demand, all imports of that commodity are suspended to protect domestic farmers and stabilize local market prices. This framework is designed to support domestic agricultural producers by ensuring they can sell their harvests without unfair competition from imported goods that would drive down prices and leave local growers with unsold stock.