Guyana’s decision to ban incoming international flights, combined with many reduced passenger flights, has dealt a blow to non-traditional agricultural exports. Guyana closed all its airports to international passenger aircraft on March 19, a closure that could remain in place until August 28 at the earliest. Meanwhile, airlines across the world are in real trouble, according to the International Air Transport Association.

This has all contributed to significant disruption for Guyanese fresh fruits and vegetables exporters, according to the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), an agency of the Agriculture Ministry which provides marketing services to stakeholders in the non-traditional agricultural sector.

It said a comparison of exports from January to May 2020 with January to May 2019 indicates that there was a 15 percent increase. For the period, January to May 2020, exports totaled 4,383 tonnes compared to 3,797 tonnes for the corresponding period in 2019.