PFA Negotiates $10 million loan for outsourced fish farmers project in Guyana

CADP is an agriculture development company that aims to capitalize on abundant land and water resources and a unique business model to produce vegetables and fish for buyers in the Caribbean, Europe and the United States (US). CADP builds upon market innovations catalyzed through previous donor funding to achieve the necessary industry scale to make investment sustainable and profitable.  The Project Company therefore brings eight years of operating experience in the field with local farmers and has received about $12 million in technical assistance funding, first from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and then from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).  Over these years CADP has achieved a substantial management and operational track record, and is now producing commercially exportable quantities of food to world standards.

Given worldwide concerns about increasing prices and food security and quality, Guyana has a significant opportunity to diversify and expand its agricultural exports. Fruits/vegetables and aquaculture are two areas where Guyana can successfully compete internationally. Guyana has ample land for expanding agricultural and aquaculture production while being unique in its committed to a low carbon development path. Due to abundant water for irrigation and aquaculture, as well as a continuous year round growing season that allows for multiple harvests and sales into the European and US markets during winter months, this land represents an enormous agricultural frontier. 

 The Project introduces important new practices that will allow access to markets on an adequate commercial scale, and the deployment of technology and capital required to develop this opportunity.  The CADP management team has been working in these sectors and realizes that, in order to compete successfully, agriculture and aquaculture must be organized in ways that differ greatly from current practices. In particular, the Project will introduce new supply chain practices and growing techniques in the food business for Guyana.

 CADP has developed an expansion plan that envisages the use or planting of a combined 2,370 acres for aquaculture and horticultural products.