Small agro-processing businesses in Guyana have derived, by and large, out of necessity, that is to say that they have emerged out of the need to either secure substantive employment or else, to serve as subsidies for individuals and/or families whose earned incomes are inadequate to meet their needs.
There are several definitions of agro-processing though, simply put, agro-processing is essentially the harvesting of herbs, fruit, vegetables and their application to the production of marketable food products including jams, jellies and condiments.
While high-investment agro-processing is characterised by sophisticated technologies, agro-processing is also pursued utilising minimum equipment and machinery and in many cases, none at all. Here, what comes readily to mind is the production here in Guyana of items like tamarind balls and an assortment of fruit-based beverages which can be ‘manufactured’ with little and in many instances no technological support whatsoever.
What has made agro-processing one of the fastest growth industries in Guyana over the past twenty-five years or so is that basic investment in a small agro-processing venture is generally relatively small with investments limited mostly to the cost of acquiring relatively cheap raw materials. (fruits and vegetables). Such knowledge as must be applied in the ‘manufacture’ of some agro-produce is limited to tips picked up ‘in the kitchen’ at home and simple trial-and-error experiments designed in the first instance to produce condiments for home use.
Over time, some of the simple experiments have benefitted from ‘add-ons’ which have won them more popularity and by extension, markets that reach beyond family consumption.
The nature and scope of agro-processing is such that investment can grow way beyond the home experiment experience and expand into major business initiatives underpinned by significant investments in plant, machinery and employees. There are a few such entities in Guyana that currently manufacture agro-produce for both the domestic and export markets. These include Tandy’s (peanut butter) and Umami (pepper sauce and food sauces).
The emergence of a thriving agro-processing sector in Guyana has created employment and livelihoods for significant numbers of ordinary people and at the larger end of the scale has opened up investment opportunities for the entrepreneurially-minded. What agro-processing has also done is to place significantly greater value on local fruits which prior to the burgeoning of the agro-processing sector, had come to be taken pretty much for granted. Fruits like mango, golden apple, plum, cherry, gooseberry, tamarind and pepper which were once cheap and easily accessible (in some rural communities purchasing pepper, for example, was more-or-less unheard of, since acquisition of pepper was simply a matter of applying to the next door neighbour’s pepper tree) whilst other types of fruit were simply known to ripen on trees, fall to the ground and rot. Much of that has changed with the advent of agro-processing on a commercial scale.
Given the ad hoc manner in which agro-processing developed in Guyana however, there were bound to be challenges associated with its growth as a legitimate area of business. Some of the earliest examples of commercially based ‘agro-processing’ were offerings like pickled mango (slices of mango immersed in a salt and water solution), gooseberry syrup and tamarind balls. The major market for these were school children so that at their inception, these were essentially ‘cents and pennies’ enterprises. Peppers too have also been ‘processed’ to good effect and were among the earliest of the agro-processed products to appear on the conventional market.
Agro-processing, therefore, had to face challenges associated with its ‘graduation’ from being merely commendable, if strictly limited to examples of self-reliance on the part of mostly working class women with families to support, to viable industries that could return a meaningful profit to the investor. It should be borne in mind that agro-processing in those days, did not benefit from a robust support structure and that there was little in the way of expertise linked to the significant growth and expansion of the sector.
Some of the considerations that needed to be taken account of if the agro processing industry was to grow and prosper were:
1) Attracting significant investment to a sector that was yet to prove itself as a potentially lucrative money-earner.
2) Linking the agro-processing and agricultural sectors in a manner designed to ensure that the former was
adequately supported by the latter.
3) Accessing machinery and equipment necessary to facilitate large scale production to meet anticipated
expanded markets.
4) Enhancing product quality and presentation to a level where it would become readily accepted in significant markets.
5) Identifying skilled persons who were prepared to accept jobs in agro-processing factories.
6) Identifying and securing reliable domestic and
external markets for agro-processed products.
Once the idea of creating a structured ago-processing sector begun to take root, other
challenges arose.
These included:
1) Product quality issues arising out of the desire to move agro-produce into the
conventional market viz. supermarkets, export etc.
2) Meeting standards of packaging and labelling that would satisfy export requirements.
3) Responding to health and safety standards associated with the manufacture of food.
All of this amounted to an entirely new experience for the ‘old fashioned’ agro-processors many of whom found it difficult to respond to the aforementioned challenges. This does not mean that they exited the enterprise altogether. What it meant, however, was that they simply remained on the periphery, sticking to their roadside and school-vending pursuits. Others, however, were willing to take up the challenge.
Other considerations worked to the advantage of the agro-processing sector. One of these was the strong ‘buy local’ message that had pervaded the Caribbean during the last quarter of a century or so of the twentieth century. With hindsight, that message, while being unable to altogether suppress foreign tastes created sufficient space to allow for room for locally manufactured agro-produce, though challenges associated with adequate supplies, quality consistency and packaging & labelling meant that entry into the mainstream market and access to foreign markets was decidedly gradual.
From the perspective of climate, soil types as well as land mass, Guyana is ideally positioned to produce both the volumes and the range of agricultural produce necessary to realise an expanded agro-processing sector. Those soils have a capacity to realise agro-produce that include citrus, corn, cashew nuts, legumes, peanuts, soybeans, dairy products, and orchard crops. The extent of the land mass, meanwhile, creates an ideal environment for the application of high technology and the establishment of medium/large scale agriculture operations.
Additionally, unlike most other territories in the Caribbean where the populations have become urbanised, a significant percentage of Guyana’s population still reside in rural areas and many of these still have strong ties to agriculture. Guyana’s farmers are also keen to learn new methods and practices and moreover, are exposed to training and technical support provided through institutions like the National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute and the Guyana Marketing Corporation. Further, proximity to CARICOM and North American markets enables exporters to supply consumers with fresh produce as well as meet the demands of a growing food processing industry in the region. This, notwithstanding the fact that up until now and for various reasons we have not maximised the opportunities afforded by those markets.
On the whole, however, agro-processing in Guyana remains a still underdeveloped sector rather than a missed opportunity. Gradually, over a period of time, technology that transcends manual production has been applied to agro-processing giving rise to higher quantities of better quality product. There has also been increasing levels of investment in agro-processing. Challenges remain, however and these include:
Competition for markets in North America from brands that are older, better and known.
Product presentation limitations arising primarily out of lingering packaging & labelling issues.
Inadequate product promotion in major markets, Failure to effectively tap into the potentially lucrative diaspora markets.
The high cost of moving (airfreighting) perishable product to major external market destinations.
Challenges associated with meeting food safety standards enshrined in increasingly stringent laws being created by countries with major markets, the USA’s Food Safety Modernization Act being an example one of those.
Nonetheless, the prognosis for Guyana’s agro-processing remains good for a number of reasons including:
1) The all year round availability and the fresh fruit and vegetables necessary to sustain the industry;
2) The continually growing demand globally for fruit and vegetable-based diets.
3) Greater preparedness by investors, critically the
banking sector, to make funding available for agro-processing ventures.
4) Indications of a greater willingness by foreign business enterprises to investigate manufactured products in the region that could attract lucrative markets in North America and Europe.
5) Increasing access by local agro-processors to efficiency-enhancing equipment and machinery.
6) Increasing interest on the part of Business Support Organizations (BSO’s) in aggressively promoting agro- processed products locally, regionally and inter nationally.
Perhaps most significantly, agro-processing has now become both a private sector as well as a public sector preoccupation. On the private sector side the agro-processing has become much more organised as is evidenced by what, these days, are stronger linkages between farmers and agro-processors in terms of coordinating raw material availability. Beyond that, funding opportunities and technical support in areas such as packaging & labelling and marketing are more readily available. Among agro-processors themselves there exists an enhanced understanding of the need to manufacture product that satisfies food safety requirements whilst measuring up to consumer expectations.
On the state sector side, the Ministry of Agriculture, through the Guyana Marketing Corporation has assumed a pivotal supporting role for agro-processing through product promotion and various forms of technical support including marketing through its Guyana Shop which stages public promotion exercises and introduces new products to the market. The Guyana Shop has also worked in collaboration with BSOs, notably the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) in the staging events like its ‘Marketplace UncappeD’ which has been held twice so far, at the Sophia Pavilion and at the Providence Stadium.
