Small businesses are still finding external markets despite trying economic times abroad, as one business in the Berbice River has proven with shipments of jam and jellies to the United States.
Eric Quallis and his wife Violet are the managers of Q Farm at Geertruyda in the Berbice River which resumed operations last year, after closing for over a year owing to production bottlenecks.
Eric Quallis told this newspaper that he initially began looking at Antigua and Barbuda, but the economic drawbacks there, as a result of the arrest of Texan billionaire Allen Stanford, whose businesses employ-ed thousands of people, saw this being put on hold.
His break into the US market came when a former employee migrated to that country and began working at the Back Home Bakery in Brooklyn between Church Ave and Snyder. The former employee, introduced Q Farm’s products to the bakery and this linkage was built upon. In addition to this market, the former employee during a trip to Florida was also able to interest people in that state as well. This year the first shipment of jams and jellies together with other Q Farm products was made to the Brooklyn bakery.
Quallis believes that his prospects in the US market, “look good.”
The “local market to me is like a practice,” he says, and believes that if one cannot fulfil the local market and keep a standard it would be difficult to ship overseas. In addition, he says a lot of paperwork and finance is involved in fulfilling overseas markets. For example, he notes that for first-time shippers initial payments may be made when the shipping agent calls the importer to say that the products are on the ship, hence there is a major upfront investment, since one has to wait until the product arrives for full payment.
Q Farm’s jams and jellies, made of pineapple, passion fruit, cherry, guava and sorrel can be found in major supermarkets in the city, at New Amsterdam, Linden, Bartica and in Essequibo.
Among the other products produced by Q Farm are green seasoning, dried thyme and natural unmixed red and yellow pepper sauce. The business also employs some six persons.
The Quallises manage a 20-acre farm in the Berbice River and plant peppers, 500-600 coconut trees and a variety of fruits including cherries and orange trees, but not pineapples. Some three persons are employed at the farm, apart from the six workers at the manufacturing site. Some 10 individuals and families also supply the business with fruits together with what the farm produces. Suppliers come from the Berbice River, Linden-Soesdyke Highway and Mahaica. Eric said that not much emphasis was placed on fruit farming in the Berbice River and it took them a while to really get farmers there to begin farming fruits.
Multi-million Linden
Highway bond
At Bamia on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway Q Farm plans to open a $2 million to $3 million depot and bond by December, to facilitate suppliers and retailers from Linden and on the highway. The facility is also being built there because there is more access to workers. According to Eric, the bond will facilitate buying fruits on the highway – the washing, cleaning and sometimes preserving of same. Sometimes there is a difficulty transporting fruits like pineapple from the highway to the manufacturing site in the Berbice River in a timely manner, so preserving them at the facility will prevent spoilage. There is also expected to be some light manufacturing done there, based on orders and sales in Linden and on Soesdyke. This facility may also contain a drying room.