Last Saturday the Guyana Marketing Corporation took advantage of the fine weekend weather and the convenience of the Main Street Avenue to stage yet another street fair in collaboration with small enterprises in the art and craft and agro processing sector.
The primary objective of the fairs has been to broaden the base of customer appeal for a range of products, many of which are yet to take hold on the local market, far less find their way into the region and further afield.
Last Saturday’s special street fair represented a departure from its customary ‘tent event’, held once monthly outside its Robb Street Complex. The GMC was also regarding the event as part of its annual Agriculture Month activities.
Staged collaboratively by the GMC’s Guyana Shop and its Agri Business Development Section in the fulfillment of their mandate to promote value-added agro-processed commodities and other products made in Guyana, the event attracted around 25 five vendor participants; a modest group for a Saturday but which the GMC will doubtless regard as a promising start to a new venture.
There is, it seems, a more determined effort being made by the GMC these days to publicise events of this nature and last Saturday’s exercise included not only potential patrons but also local distributors on the lookout for new products to distribute.
The fair attracted a few hundred locals and a good handful of overseas visitors.
There was a good deal of sampling and modest sales and Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy alluded to the virtues of a ‘buy local’ culture as a mechanism for growing the market for locally produced goods.
The 25-odd booths displayed a range of goods that included pepper sauce, cassareep, coconut oils, jams and fudge, among other items. Samples of honey, honeycomb, seasonings, and sauces were available.
GMC General Manager Nizam Hassan disclosed plans to take the Guyana Shop to other parts of the country by partnering with supermarkets countrywide. Up to this time GMC has partnered with G P Jaigobin Supermarket at Anna Regina, on the Essequibo Coast where a similar exercise was held on Saturday October 18, and earlier at Spready’s Supermarket in Port Mourant, Berbice. At these supermarkets, an aisle or several shelves are dedicated to the food display of products provided by the GMC.
“We are moving across the country. Eventually the country must become saturated with the distribution of products made in Guyana and then we’ll go to the other level,” Hassan said.
