Widely regarded as the most high-profile local effort in recent years to popularise locally manufactured products, primarily agro-produce, fresh greens and vegetables, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and craft, the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association’s (GMSA) UNCAPPED Marketplace will make its third appearance in three successive years on Sunday March 31 at the National Stadium, Providence.
Stabroek Business has learnt that apart from the 70 product providers in the small business sector who have signed up to participate in the event, some of the more high-profile businesses in the productive sector including Sterling Products, National Milling Company, Banks DIH Ltd and Demerara Distillers Ltd are expected to participate in the event. A no less significant aspect of this weekend’s event will be a fresh vegetables and fruit market that will see participation from Regions Three, Four and Five, which is being organised by the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC).
This Sunday’s fourth staging of the UNCAPPED event is being sponsored by the GMSA, Sterling Products Ltd, ExxonMobil, Sagacity Inc and Star Party Rentals. It will bring together local agro-processors and farmers, among others, to maximise the marketing of local farm and manufactured products. The event, apart from raising consumer awareness of the range of local products available on the market, also affords opportunity for wholesalers and retailers to contemplate the placement of a broader range of local goods on supermarket shelves.
Information released to Stabroek News by the GMSA Secretariat indicates that Sunday’s event will feature around 70 product displays by small and medium-sized enterprises, mostly in the agro-processing sub-sector. The GMSA says that the UNCAPPED Marketplace event “will allow exhibitors to showcase and sell their products to a wider national audience and to also network and market their businesses.” Additionally, according to the GMSA, the event provides “an opportunity for already existing businesses to build and further promote existing brands.”
Despite the high levels of public participation which previous UNCAPPED Marketplace events have attracted, observers have continued to wonder aloud as to their overall impact on product promotion. The point has repeatedly been made that while events like UNCAPPED Marketplace appear well-planned and attract a high level of public participation, the absence of structured reports on their outcomes render reliable impact assessment difficult. Stabroek Business’ own engagements with retail outlets suggest that agro-produce continues to make modest inroads in terms of acceptance on supermarket shelves with locally manufactured juices, jams and jellies, food seasonings, honey and condiments being favoured items. However, while steady progress in the areas of packaging and labeling have also strengthened the case of local products for greater market access, supply challenges are frequently a constraint to meeting market demand.
GMSA has told the Stabroek Business that over time it intends to stage the UNCAPPED Marketing event across Guyana.
The GMSA says that this year’s UNCAPPED Marketing event will have a significant “fun and entertainment” dimension that will offer games, music and a variety of local “foods and giveaways.” The event will also feature competitions that will afford visitors the chance to win “shelf loads of 100% made-in-Guyana products from the UNCAPPED Cabinet.”
