The new online Market and Enterprise Information System launched earlier this month by the New Guyana Marketing Corporation (New GMC) seeks to remove the constraint of limited access to critical market information which has constrained the growth and expansion of enterprises in the local agricultural and agro processing sectors.
New GMC General Manager, Nizam Hassan, told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week that the launch of the new information service exemplifies the adoption of information technology to support the pursuits of farmers, agro-processors and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector.
“The new Market Enterprise Information System acknowledges that the farmer is no longer a person who simply digs a hole and plants a seed. Being a successful farmer requires that information is readily available on a whole range of issues including market information, and the new service positions farmers to benefit from having easy and ready access to such information,” Hassan says.
Beyond providing strategic information including export market access procedures to local farmers, the new service also allows local and international buyers to access market information on agricultural products including agro-processed commodities available on the local market.
Hassan told Stabroek Business that one of the immediate and significant benefits of the new service is that it simultaneously provides the various stakeholders in the sector with the same information. “Everyone gets told the same thing at the same time,” he says. At the same time the online availability of the facility to access administrative information and complete procedures associated with export permits and other procedures “reduces the volume of paperwork for both the New GMC and the stakeholders,” Hassan says.
Internet access to critical market information also allows for direct business transactions between farmers and exporters while local agro-processors are being allowed to use the site as a marketing mechanism for their products.
The New GMC’s Market and Enterprise Information system now positions the corporation to better support the broader local and external marketing and promotional pursuits of goods and services available locally. Hassan says that with the advent of the site the New GMC will now be seeking to engage local private sector bodies including the Private Sector Commission to explore ways in which it can support the local and overseas promotional pursuits of private sector entities. “We are keen to share the facility with the local business sector,” Hassan says.
The New GMC’s electronic information service which Hassan says will be managed by an in-house site administrator will be updated on a daily basis.
The new site provides a range of information on services available to the agricultural and agro-processing sectors through the new GMC including advisory services, brokerages, cold storage facilities, market analyses, packaging facilities and refrigerated trucking facilities.
