A cross section of local manufacturers are expected to participate in the inaugural National Agro Processors Forum at the International Conference Centre, Liliendaal on Friday March 28.
The forum, which is being executed by the Guyana Marketing Corporation, (GMC), will bring together a cross section of stakeholders in the sector in an event which GMC official and Guyana Shop General Manager Kevin Macklingham says, is intended to link producers, buyers and service providers in agriculture and manufacturing.
“We have issued more than 180 invitations and if the attendance is as good as we anticipate then the objectives that we have set for the event will be met,” he says.
According to Macklingham, one of the primary objectives of the country’s first ever agro processors forum is to “provide, space and opportunity for the sector to express itself.” He said the organisers are also seeking to ensure that the various interest groups have discourses amongst themselves to determine how they can support each other.
Macklingham explains that part of the focus of the forum will be on product development. Agro processors apart, the forum seeks to attract participants who may be able to support agro processors in the provision of bottles and labels and in the supply of raw materials. He says the forum will also bring buyers and sellers together in “either one-off or long-term arrangements” that could help “foster permanent buyer/seller relationships.” He says this anticipated outcome aims at increasing markets for local agro processors. “I doubt that more than twenty per cent of the local market is fully aware of what our agro processors are doing,” Macklingham says.
The Guyana Shop serves as an outlet for more than ninety local products and Macklingham tells Stabroek Business that if the responses to the March 28 event “is as good as we anticipate” then manufacturers are likely to leave the event better off. He says that apart from the product exposure which the forum will provide, it will also allow for interaction between agro processors and the Food and Drugs Department of the Ministry of Health and other local standards institutions.
Macklingham says that as much as anything else the forum will seek to help local manufacturers understand the practices and procedures associated with marketing food products. “We expect that as our local food manufacturers grow they would also be sensitive to safety and health standards which are important for penetrating both local and overseas markets,” Macklingham says. The Guyana Revenue Authority, representatives of diplomatic missions, international organisations and business support groups are also expected to attend the event.
In the past, local agro processors have been a prominent part of the annual GuyExpo event and Macklingham says it will be interesting to see how they fare at an event of their own.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Shop is set to open its first off-premises outlet at Spready’s establishment, Port Mourant later this month. The Guyana Shop Manager tells Stabroek Business that the GMC targeted the opening of six outlets in Regions Two, Three, Five and Six this year.
