Guyana is using part of its oil wealth to modernize agriculture and prepare local products for wider regional and international markets, according to Private Sector Commission (PSC) Chairman Gerry Gouveia Jr.
Gouveia, speaking on the Energy Perspectives podcast on August 10, pointed to agriculture as one of the areas where investment from the oil economy is being used to build capacity beyond the petroleum sector.
“Now we’re reinvesting our oil and gas resources into developing the infrastructure to invest in higher yield crops, non-traditional crops, agro-processing to make sure that our crops and our products are now export ready,” he said.
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The approach comes as Guyana seeks to move agriculture beyond traditional commodities such as rice and sugar and increase its ability to produce, process and export a wider range of products.
Gouveia sees the country’s geography as another advantage.
“We’re [Guyana] primed for agriculture because we are geographically in Latin America, but culturally, logistically, economically, we’re Caribbean. So, we actually act as that gateway. We can really start servicing both the Latin market and the CARICOM [Caribbean Community] market,” he added.
The agriculture sector has already recorded strong growth. The 2026 Budget estimated that agriculture, forestry and fishing expanded 11.5% in 2025.
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Rice remained a major driver. Production reached 810,299 tonnes in 2025, up from 725,000 tonnes a year earlier. The rice subsector grew an estimated 15.7%, while yields reached 6.6 tonnes per hectare.
Other areas also expanded. The other-crops subsector grew 11.1%, while livestock increased 12.5%. Fisheries grew 6.5%, with aquaculture production rising 52%.
Guyana is producing oil from four floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels offshore in the Stabroek Block operated by ExxonMobil and its co-venturers.
ExxonMobil Guyana President Alistair Routledge disclosed on August 11 that Guyana may have already produced more than one billion barrels of oil since offshore production began in December 2019.
