Cecil ‘Sugar’ Raghoobeer and his wife Zorena have become a popular business team amongst the vendors at Mon Repos, Stabroek and Bourda markets and at several hotels in the city. Their Hope Estate Farm produces a range of fruit and vegetables which they deliver to various customers in the city and its environs in their own vans. What makes them stand out is the fact that they have married conventional farming methods with more contemporary approaches to agriculture to make their 13-acre spread a model facility.
Nor is the service they provide to market vendors and hoteliers the extent of their business venture. Their own stalls, numbers 88 and 89 on Bourda Green, are well-supported by loyal customers seeking fresh supplies of tomato, celery, cabbage, sweet pepper, hot pepper, ochro and boulanger and other vegetables and fruit.
The Raghoobeers’ venture into farming began 20 years ago with a small kitchen garden at their