– to focus on product development, packaging
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Manniram Prashad urged agro-processors to develop and maintain high standards for their products at a meeting held on Wednesday to form the Guyana Agro-Processors Association.
Prashad told the meeting that though the industry has been steadily developing agro-processors still needed to ensure that their products could compete with international products sold locally.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release the meeting also elected an executive to represent them at various forums. Prashad told the meeting that now that it has an organised body it can access assistance from the commerce and agriculture ministries, the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC), the Small Business Council and other agencies.
GINA said agro-processing is one of the areas of the Small and Medium Enter-prises that has been dominated by a large number of persons who depend on it for a livelihood. However, because the operations are small, very little attention is given to the type of packaging and labelling used which results in poor presentation of often very good products. This affects the perception of the quality of the product and contributes to difficulty in competing with more attractively packaged products. The minister said while pricing needs to be addressed product development and quality needs to be boosted to meet high standards for exporting.
Representatives from EMPRETEC, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards and GMC also attended the meeting.
